AF Corse and Audi get IGTC titles as AKKA-ASP dominates Kyalami 9 Hour

Thanks to a bunch of factors, the 2021 Intercontinental GT Challenge season had to be ended only in February 2022, and a rather empty Kyalami 9 Hour saw the No. 89 AKKA-ASP Mercedes of Raffaele Marciello, Timur Boguslavskiy and Jules Gounon march over the field while watching Ferrari and Audi lift the season trophies.

As usual the weather played its part, but by avoiding the December start, the characteristic huge rain fell over Kyalami at a different moment, exactly at the Qualifying. With the deluge making any sort of driving impractical, neither the Qualifying nor the Superpole were held, with SRO taking the rare decision of recurring to the Pre-Qualifying results, which put the No. 89 AKKA-ASP Mercedes on pole position.

The order wasn’t changed from the start, with the No. 89 AKKA-ASP Mercedes controlling the race quickly to avoid that the pair of AF Corse Ferraris would come closer. With the driver change in AKKA-ASP and quick service in AF Corse, the Italians took the lead in the second hour, and with things in control, then the full pit work was done.

AF Corse was the team that played the most with the pit strategy, going really off the line that AKKA-ASP and WRT were following, but always stopping the Nos. 51 and 71 Ferraris together to keep both title contenders protected, which was broken with 2 hours and a half due to a drive through penalty for the No. 51 due to multiple track limits violations. The No. 32 WRT Audi proved to be a stumbling block between the AF Corse Ferraris too, but Nicklas Nielsen dealt with it as quick as possible, putting the No. 71 in third after the start of the third hour.

The big blow for AF Corse in the chase to the No. 89 was a gearbox problem that basically knocked out the No. 71 Ferrari, leaving it stranded on track and also leaving the No. 51 Ferrari alone in the pursuit.

As the night time approached, the pit stop cycle got going on and on, and with the bad weather coming a day earlier, the remainder of the race would be a dry track affair with the No. 89 AKKA-ASP Mercedes being nearly 20 seconds ahead of the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari.

The final hour was in the hands of the No. 89, with Jules Gounon keeping the good pace and basically blocking any chances for the no. 51 AF Corse Ferrari to discount it, so the gap that was in 8 seconds was extended to nearly 20 seconds towards the finish, meaning that for AKKA-ASP, it was just about keeping it safe and bring it home to the win.

Joburg Kyalami 9 Hours - Race results

The No. 33 High Class Audi won the Pro-Am Cup despite a problematic run, and the No. 86 Stradale Lamborghini was the best in the National class despite the early visit into the garage.

Ferrari drivers Côme Ledogar and Alessandro Pier Guidi were crowned drivers’ champions with 55 points against the 50 of Markus Winkelhock and Patric Niederhauser. While just missing the drivers title, Audi still conquered the manufacturers title with 105 points against 69 from Mercedes and only 60 from Ferrari.

The action will resume on 15 May with the 2022 season kickoff at the Bathurst 12 Hour, with the IGTC retaining a four round calendar, with only the Asian round being missing as the Suzuka 10 Hours is omitted again from the schedule.

PHOTO: SRO