Gounon: IGTC Title Crown on “Insane Season” With AMG

Jules Gounon hailed his Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli drivers’ title triumph as a “crazy” conclusion to a highly successful campaign, although he feared a broken splitter in the closing stages would derail his championship charge.

The Andorran driver finished third in Sunday’s Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours with Mercedes-AMG Team 2 Seas, which was enough to secure the drivers’ championship after main rival Philipp Eng encountered trouble early in the race that eliminated him from contention.

The IGTC triumph comes at the end of a highly successful year for Gounon, who notably took class victories at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, Motul Petit Le Mans and won the Bathurst 12 Hour along with several accolades.

Gounon said the title in the globe-trotting GT3 series felt like the closing note to an “insane season,” while also crediting the teams and co-drivers that he raced with across the campaign.

“It’s true that the last victories have been crazy but for me this trophy is more about accomplishment with teammates and teams,” Gounon told Sportscar365.

“Because I raced with four different teams and nine different teammates, which is just something very nice. I think for sure today I got the luck to get this trophy but it’s also a trophy from all of us delivering an insane season.

“When I saw the season we did in 2022, winning Kyalami, winning Spa, GT World Challenge, third in ADAC GT Masters, I thought it’s going to be difficult to do a good season in 2023.

“[This year] 2023 we won Daytona, Bathurst again, Petit Le Mans, IMSA Endurance Cup, GT World Challenge, IGTC… it’s just crazy.

“So I’m super happy to wrap this up. I was really scared here to lose this. Now it’s a one-month break and when you lose a title, you go home and you’re just sad for one month. So now I’m just super happy and I can go home and be in peace.”

Gounon was placed on course for the title even before the halfway mark of the race when exhaust issues left the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 in the garage for 12 minutes, effectively ending rival Eng’s championship hopes.

Gounon admitted that he changed his approach after that, asking his teammates to play it safe.

“At one point I said, ‘No more risk,” he said. “The goal is to finish third.

“Fourth was also okay for the championship, so finishing it third [or] fourth would be enough.”

Despite that, Gounon completed his final stint with a damaged splitter on his No. 14 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, the aftermath of contact between co-driver Fabian Schiller and eventual race winner Mikael Grenier in the No. 99 GruppeM Racing machine.

“The last 20 minutes I was driving three seconds off the pace because [it was] flapping around like crazy,” he said.

“I was really scared. If I lose the title because it breaks down in the last 20 minutes, that would be very painful.”

Gounon described the contact between Schiller and Grenier as a “racing incident” while his German co-driver added that the touch occurred after the GruppeM driver went deep into Turn 6.

“I think I saw he was coming from behind,” Schiller told Sportscar365.

“They were quite a bit quicker than us at that stage of the race. Then I didn’t close the door, I didn’t want to defend myself.

“I braked a bit early so I thought he just goes on the inside but he outbraked himself a bit and went a bit deep and that’s when we touched.

“It can happen, especially on tight corners like this. It would have been maybe easier for me to lift on the straight.”