Why pole-setter Jules Gounon almost didn’t make it back to the pits a second time and why he had no problem with Thomas Preining driving into the back of him
It was a successful start to his first DTM season for Winward Mercedes newcomer Jules Gounon, as Mick Schumacher’s WEC teammate is just three points behind DTM leader Jordan Pepper in the overall standings, level on points with Lucas Auer and Ayhancan Güven. The Sunday race, in which the pole-setter finished second behind Manthey Porsche driver Güven, almost went wrong due to the newly introduced second mandatory stop.
“I was a little scared in the second stint because I lost radio contact,” “I heard something and it was very quiet, so I thought ‘pit’. I said ‘pit’ – and he just replied ‘pit, pit, pit, pit, pit! ‘ Okay, then I’ll come into the pits.”
If he hadn’t heard his engineer Thomas Gleibs’ radio message immediately, his race would have been ruined. ‘That was the last lap of the pit stop window,’ said the Winward Mercedes driver. ‘We were pretty lucky in that respect.’
Preining drives into the rear of Gounon: “I like that!”
Because Gounon only responds to his engineer’s radio instructions and has no other display. Without a second stop, 70 seconds would have been added to his total time at the end. But one thing is already clear: the son of former Formula 1 driver Jean-Marc Gounon, who replaced Luca Stolz in last year’s season finale at Hockenheim and made his debut, has arrived in the DTM, where he has been dreaming of racing for many years.
Although he had to accept an overcut from Güven at the first stops and fell back to second place, after the second stops the “Mamba” driver successfully defended himself against the “Grello” Porsche driver Thomas Preining, who was pushing him from behind and touched him several times.
“I was hit from behind a few times, but I like that – that’s racing,” he said, making an unusual statement. Does it not bother him at all when a rival drives into the rear of his car? “It’s part of the game,” replied the 30-year-old. “That’s exactly why people love the DTM. Close racing, sometimes a little contact, that was quite good.”
Race engineer laid the foundation for pole and podium
He attributes the fact that he didn’t finish on the podium on both days and might even be DTM leader today to Saturday’s strategy. Gounon was in third place behind his brand colleague Lucas Auer and Grasser Lamborghini driver Pepper in the early stages.
“I thought I had the podium spot, but the pit stop phase wasn’t so good. We fell back because others made an overcut,” said Gounon, who finished fifth in the end.
Despite ten kilograms of additional weight due to a balance of performance change, the car was ‘much better’ on Sunday, according to Gounon. “My engineer Thomas made a big improvement. We changed the dampers overnight,” he said, thanking his race engineer, who also serves as chief engineer for the Winward team.
