ASP took a clear start-finish victory at the rescheduled 9 Hours of Kyalami – second place is enough for AF Corse to take the drivers’ title – Audi manufacturers’ champion
For the first time since its re-run, the 9 Hours of Kyalami was spared rain on race day. The traditional monsoon thunderstorm washed away qualifying and Superpole this time, but there was a regular final on race day this time. It stayed with scattered drops even though a stream in the right-hand bend just after start/finish never disappeared.
On the podium, everyone had something to smile about at the end. The trio of Raffaele Marciello, Timur Boguslawski and Jules Gounon took an unchallenged victory in the 89 ASP Mercedes. After Porsche in 2019 and BMW in 2020, Mercedes-AMG now sorted itself out among the winning manufacturers in South Africa.
Alessandro Pier Guidi and Come Ledogar, who shared the second-placed Ferrari with Miguel Molina, took the IGTC title in the 51 AF-Corse Ferrari. The third-placed Audi drivers landed the manufacturers’ title for the four rings.
With only 13 cars starting, two of which finished their local race on schedule after 90 minutes, there was never any promise of a particularly spectacular finale. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a huge toll on the Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) starting fields.
The race was the third stop of the season and thus the season finale of the 2021 IGTC season. Due to the Omikron mutation, the original date in early December could not be kept.
Ferrari can’t threaten Mercedes-AMG
It was ultimately a commanding affair for the ASP-Mercedes 51, so Ferrari now had two hot irons in the fire.
At the very beginning of the race, AF Corse took both Ferraris “off sequence”. With the small starting field, it was quite possible that the race could go on without interruption. So Ferrari put the cart before the horse.
Drama for one of our title contenders: @_Nicklasnielsen has ground to a halt while running third!
📺 https://t.co/CGLTfspqs0#IGTC | #Kyalami9H 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/QsQF1O1wX0
— Intercontinental GT Challenge (@IntercontGTC) February 5, 2022
After three hours, however, that was moot. When the only GT4 car in the field, the MJR Audi 71 retired with gearbox damage. This also meant that Audi had won the manufacturer’s title in the 2021 IGTC.
Audi without a chance, but IGTC champion
The two Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo I cars from the Pro Cup finished third and fourth. Audi never had the pace of Mercedes-AMG and Ferrari. Mattia Drudi was in second place with the WRT Audi 32 (Weerts/Drudi/Haase; 4th) at the restart, but was overtaken by Pier Guidi over the outside lane in the sunset corner with a manoeuvre worth seeing.
There's still a long way to go but @ComeLedogar and @Ale_PierGuidi now lead the drivers' championship thanks to the latter's around-the-outside move on @MattiaDrudi!
📺 https://t.co/CGLTfspqs0#IGTC | #Kyalami9H 🇿🇦 pic.twitter.com/WGEAyGq8Ti
— Intercontinental GT Challenge (@IntercontGTC) February 5, 2022
It was Pier Guidi’s second overtaking manoeuvre of this kind in the 2021 IGTC, having already taken victory at the Spa 24 Hours with a similar manoeuvre at the Blanchimont corner. The Italian belatedly ended an extremely successful 2021 season in which he has now also won the IGTC Drivers’ Championship after the 24 Hours of Spa and Le Mans as well as the WEC GT World Championship.
Back to Audi: the R8 LMS GT3 was not capable of winning in the high altitude air (Johannesburg is 1,300 metres above sea level). That didn’t stop WRT and Sainteloc from having a thrilling battle for the final podium spot.
The decision came with 70 minutes to go when Haase in the 25 Sainteloc Audi (Winkelhock/Niederhauser/van der Linde; 3rd) went through and secured the final podium spot. The two R8s were separated by just 5.050 seconds at the finish.
Native African team makes history
The class winners from Silver Cup and Pro-Am Cup, the 75 SunEnergy1 Mercedes (Grenier/Konrad/Habul; 7th), which took the Pro-Am title with second place.
Around goes @ChHaase in Barbeque corner with seventy minutes left on the clock, losing third place to fellow Audi driver @P_Niederhauser. They're 41.237 seconds behind the second-placed No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of @MiguelMolinaM2.#IGTC #Kyalami9H pic.twitter.com/DgbAqGyZsj
— Vincent Bruins 🧡 (@VincentJBruins) February 5, 2022
It is also worth noting that for the first time in history, a team made up purely of native African drivers took notice of an official, international FIA race. The Stradale Lamborghini 23 (Letlaka/Sipuka/Kekana; 9th) saw the chequered flag and set an important sign for inclusion.
From a sporting point of view, however, it became clear how far the road still is. After an accident in pre-qualifying, the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo was rebuilt. The fastest lap of the trio was more than seven seconds over the fastest lap of the race. On average, the bolide was around twelve seconds slower than the front runners and lost 45 laps without any technical problems. Nevertheless, the participation was an important sign for the entire continent.
The 2021 IGTC has thus come to a belated end. For its part, the 2022 season begins with an event postponed due to corona: from 13 to 15 May, the 12 Hours of Bathurst 2022 are on the programme – if they are allowed to take place.
