Juncadella: Mistake-Free Races ‘The Way to Score’ in LMGT3

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Daniel Juncadella says running consistent, mistake-free races is likely key to stringing together a strong campaign in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMGT3 class due to the class’ mixed driver nature after TF Sport retained the championship lead by finishing seventh in Imola.

The Spaniard, sharing the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R with Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar, came away with six points during the second round to the season in Italy, adding to the 38 they scored by winning the Qatar 1812km in February.

Juncadella described TF’s Imola run as “very positive,” largely staying out of trouble aside from an early incident that saw Keating tagged into a spin by Iron Dames driver Celia Martin at Tamburello.

“Again, a very positive race for us because like in Qatar, we were expecting maybe to grab a top five after qualifying,” Juncadella told Sportscar365.

“There we won the race thanks to a lot of mistakes from the others and right strategy, no mistakes from us and then a good drive to the end defending.

“And here, I thought it was going to be difficult to score points and in the end we finished seventh.

“So again, there’s a lot of penalties as you could see, a lot of mistakes in strategy, drivers making mistakes, which is normal, it’s a six-hour race, a lot can happen, and especially here around Imola.

“We managed to get a pretty clean race apart from little incidents but seventh [for us] and sixth for sister car, happy with that.”

Notably, the British squad has also kept the same eleven-point gap to the competition it had after Qatar, although Akkodis ASP Team pairing Arnold Robin and Finn Gehrsitz took over second place courtesy of their third-place finish in Italy.

The No. 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, meanwhile, dropped to third after not scoring points at Imola, with the No. 92 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R fourth after taking a class win.

Notably, a number of contenders in the LMGT3 ranks were also given penalties during the course of the race that impacted their results, notably including the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3 that was given a 25-second stop and hold for speeding in the pitlane.

That, coupled with incidents between cars in the class at various stages of Sunday’s six-hour contest led Juncadella to conclude that consistent running rather than outright speed has become the key to stringing together points finishes in WEC’s GT ranks.

“This is the the way to score results in LMGT3 and I think that is going to be the trend for as many years as it stays with this kind of sporting regulations,” he said.

“Because when you have that mix of Bronze, Silver and Pro drivers, it makes it more open for mistakes. It’s just natural.

“Also this track, around Imola, no real chance to save your car. If you make a mistake in a corner it’s easy to go off to make a bigger mistake.

“We [saw] there’s a lot of penalties, a lot of mistakes and we’ve been focusing, always very clear about it.

“Let’s not make mistakes let’s focus on ourselves and try to get as clean of a race as possible.

“The team has been nailing the strategy every time. I think we were really good on that and that paid off.”