GruppeM Wins Gulf 12H; Gounon Crowned IGTC Champion

In a reversal of fortunes from a year ago, GruppeM Racing took victory in the Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours while Mercedes-AMG driver Jules Gounon was crowned the Intercontinental GT Challenge powered by Pirelli drivers’ champion.

Mercedes-AMG, meanwhile, took the manufacturers’ championship in the globe-trotting GT3 series.

After starting the race from pole position, Maro Engel, Luca Stolz and Mikael Grenier overcame an early deficit due to a slow pitstop to drive the No. 99 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo to victory by a margin of 12.811 seconds over the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3.

A third-place finish for Gounon, meanwhile, was enough for him to claim his first IGTC drivers’ title, succeeding Daniel Juncadella who won the crown last year.

In a race headlined by strategy calls and several big incidents throughout, the Mamba-liveried Mercedes-AMG rolled the strategic dice early by pitting by the end of the opening lap to take the first of ten mandatory 100-second timed pitstops.

The rest of the Pro field followed suit in the following laps, leading to an opening half of the race that was largely led by Pro-Am and Am entries until the No. 14 Mercedes-AMG Team 2 Seas trio of Gounon, Fabian Schiller and Maximilian Goetz emerged out front approaching halfway.

They were followed by Valentino Rossi, Nick Yelloly and Dries Vanthoor in the No. 46 BMW, which was the sole WRT entry still in contention after its sister car lost seven laps with exhaust issues in the fourth hour.

The No. 99 Mercedes-AMG, meanwhile, was on a recovery drive after a wheel issue in an earlier pitstop had put it a lap down on their rivals.

Grenier then took the car back to the lead lap by passing Schiller at Turn 6 with just over six hours to go, which put it in prime position to take advantage when the leading No. 14 2 Seas car made a lengthy stop to change brakes under a Full Course Yellow.

The neutralization, triggered by a heavy crash for the No. 79 Tsunami RT Porsche 911 GT3 R in hour eight, was upgraded to a safety car that saw WRT driver Rossi lead at the restart ahead of Stolz, with Gounon now down in third place.

The Italian driver successfully maintained his advantage over the No. 99 car until the car’s pedal box broke when handing over to Nick Yelloly with three and a half hours left.

This resulted in a slow stop that promoted the GruppeM squad to the lead. After Vanthoor took over from Yelloly, who struggled with a compromised seating position, the Belgian chipped away at Engel’s lead until a five-second penalty for track limits put him out of reach for the rest of the contest.

As a result, GruppeM took victory a year after it saw a front row lockout fall apart early due to issues for both cars.

Gounon, meanwhile, came across the line in third place to secure the drivers’ title after main rival Philipp Eng was all but eliminated from contention as a result of the early exhaust issues.

Eng, Charles Weerts and Sheldon van der Linde finished in 16th overall, six laps down on the winning Mercedes-AMG.

GruppeM’s No. 77 Mercedes-AMG of Frank Bird, Lucas Auer and Lorenzo Ferrari finished fourth overall, ahead of Am-class winners Car Collection Motorsport.

The German squad’s No. 21 Porsche, in the hands of Constantin Dressler, Dustin Blattner and Joel Sturm, led much of the early exchanges and ended the race as the highest non-Pro entry.

Optimum Motorsport claimed the Pro-Am class victory with the No. 27 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo driven by Rob Bell, Ollie Millroy and Mark Radcliffe in sixth overall.

Kessel Racing’s No. 11 Ferrari 296 GT3 finished the race in seventh.

A class podium upon his return to racing fell apart for Kenny Habul when the No. 75 SunEnergy1 Racing Mercedes-AMG stopped on track with five minutes remaining, allowing the No. 33 Herberth Motorsport Porsche to competed the Pro-Am top three.

The race was marked by several significant incidents throughout, which often resulted in barrier repairs.

Shaun Balfe crashed the No. 59 Garage 59 McLaren after 24 laps, while Stephen Grove smacked the No. 4 Grove Racing Porsche into the barrier at Turn 1 in the second hour.

Both incidents led to the emergence of the safety car, while Tsunami RT’s Stefano Borghi also caused an intervention later on when he made impact with the barrier at Turn 6.

RESULTS: Lenovo Gulf 12 Hours