The famed South African race returned after an absence on the calendar due to Covid-19 while interference from the Omicron strain delayed the race weekend by two months. However, Mercedes emerged victorious at the Kyalami 9 Hour while Ferrari clinched the 2021 Championship.
Piloting the #89 AKKA ASP Mercedes-AMG GT3 to race victory was Raffaele Marciello, Jules Gounon and Timur Boguslavskiy who convincingly led the endurance race on Saturday after being awarded pole position in Friday’s cancelled qualifying session. The winning Mercedes also has the bragging rights over the fastest lap of the race which came at lap 193 after setting a blisteringly quick time of 1:42.285 over the 4.5 km circuit which would not be beaten for the remainder of the race.
While Mercedes emerged victorious at the race, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 driven by Côme Ledogar, Miguel Molina and Alessandro Pier Guidi clinched the 2021 Intercontinental GT Challenge season after going into the race with a two point lead over the #25 Audi Sport Team Sainteloc driven by Patric Niederhauser, Markus Winkelhock and South African Kelvin Van Der Linde.
The #25 Audi rounded the podium places after the sister #71 AF Corse, driven by Nicklas Nielsen, Alessio Rovera and Antonio Fuoco retired with electrical transmission issues three and a half hours into the endurance race after completing 118 gruelling laps.
The final challenger of the PRO class was the #32 Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Audi Sport Team WRT driven by Christopher Haase, Mattia Drudi and Charles Weerts who helped Audi Sport to comfortably claim the 2021 Intercontinental GT Challenge manufacturers’ championship.
After the cancelled qualifying day, both the lead Mercedes and duo of AF Corse Ferrari provided an attritional fight, all content with maintaining positions while the #25 Audi attempted a charge to overtake the Scarlet Red Prancing Horse in a bid to win the drivers championship too.
While Mercedes emerged victorious for the GT3 category, the two competing Lamborghini’s in the SA National GT3 class finished in 8th and 9th with Charl Arangies, Arnold Neveling and Michael Van Rooyen completing 278 laps and taking the honours over Xolile Letlaka, Tschops Sipuka and Phillip Kekana who were just over a dozen laps behind.
A busy calendar for the start of the 2022 season and the Bathurst 12 Hour scheduled for the 13th – 15th of MAY meant that the Kyalami 9 Hour had an underwhelming international grid in comparison to the entrants for the original race in December of 2021. Speculation in the motorsport circles within South Africa has high hopes has it that the event will move to a date earlier on the calendar to entice all teams to attend and not just those who have a title winning opportunity.
Photos: Alex Shahini (@alexshahini)
