Gounon Hoping for IGTC Title After “Getting Close Few Times”

Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli points leader Jules Gounon hopes he can take home the drivers’ championship at the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours after several near misses in previous years.

Gounon holds a lead of eight points over Philipp Eng with one race remaining, while Sheldon van der Linde and Charles Weerts sit a further six points behind in third place.

However, with the three BMW drivers sharing a single Team WRT M4 GT3, it puts Van der Linde and Weerts effectively out of the points battle as they won’t be able to outscore their Austrian co-driver.

Gounon, meanwhile, shares the No. 14 2 Seas Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo with fellow factory drivers Maximilian Goetz and Fabian Schiller.

The Andorran driver arrives at Yas Marina Circuit after a fruitful campaign that saw him take victory at Bathurst, finish second in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa and third at Indianapolis.

Gounon told Sportscar365 that he finally hopes to seal the championship for himself this time round, having missed out on the crown on several occasions previously.

He finished runner-up to Daniel Juncadella last year, while an engine failure in the 2020 Kyalami 9 Hour with Bentley also got in the way of championship glory.

“The trophy is beautiful, the championship is an amazing championship,” Gounon told Sportscar365.

“The best GT races in the world, wrapped up in one championship, which is very nice. I’ve been very close a few times.

“Last year second. With Bentley, we were in the lead in the race in Kyalami to get the trophy and we had an engine blowout.

“So it’s been a few times, it was close. So I really hope this time I can take home this beautiful trophy.”

While Gounon would be the sole recipient of the drivers’ championship trophy should he win the title in Abu Dhabi, he was quick to credit his various teammates from the previous events.

In addition to teaming with Goetz and Schiller for the season finale, previous races saw him drive alongside the likes of Kenny Habul, Luca Stolz, Timur Boguslavskiy and Raffaele Marciello.

“It’s been one I didn’t win in GT racing, but for me ICTC, for sure one driver is racing for the crown, but it’s not [just] one,”  Gounon said.

“I’ve raced with Luca, Kenny, Lello, Timur, and now Fabi and Maxi. So it’s a title of everyone for sure.

“Now I’m in the front because of these circumstances, but I think it’s really good also to never forget that I wasn’t alone on all these races.”

Looking ahead to the title battle, Gounon anticipated that the championship picture likely won’t become clear until the final phase of the race and that the points outcome would take priority over race results.

“At the end, you try to win the race, that’s for sure,” he said.

“Everyone tries to win the race, but when you play for a championship, you don’t try to win it at any cost.

“Maybe if you finish second and you’re champion, then maybe you stay second. Or if you are third and you’re champion or whatever place, sometimes you have to think a bit more.

“So normally you don’t think about it except the last two hours where it really starts to fall your way or not.

“Then you know what to try to do, it’s a lot of risk management also when you’re playing for the championship.

“So hopefully we will be in a position where we can be comfortable and I just hope it’s going to be a fair fight and we will be fighting hard on track to get this title.”

The Mercedes-AMG driver pointed to the spread of various lineups drivers in the field as a potential risk, noting that navigating through traffic safely will be a key factor in securing a good outcome.

“Big disparity as always between cars because there is full Am cars, Pro-Am cars, Pro cars,” he said.

“So the traffic will be also key. Your race can be done [in] a moment [if] an Am didn’t see you coming and then suddenly you’re out of the race. So you need also to be able to think about that.”