Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI
Daniel Juncadella says he is “very proud” of the defensive job he did to secure TF Sport’s first FIA World Endurance Championship victory with Corvette as he fended off the United Autosports McLaren of Gregoire Saucy in the Qatar 1812km.
The battle for LMGT3 class honors at the Lusail International Circuit boiled down to a straight duel between Juncadella in the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R and Saucy in the No. 95 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, who ran nose to tail for much of the final hour.
Despite Saucy appearing to have a pace advantage in the closing stages, Juncadella was able to hang on to the win by just 0.493 seconds in the car he shares with his two new teammates for 2025, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating.
“These are the situations that you prepare for, that you work your ass of in the gym for, that you see the psychologist for, that are make-or-break, where you know you don’t have the pace of the car behind and you have to keep him behind,” Juncadella told Sportscar365.
“It feels great now to have done it. Because it’s a hard track to pass, I knew he would struggle following me, but he was super-quick and he had a couple of chances.
“I’m an experienced guy so when the time comes I know how to defend and where to place myself, I was not nervous about that situation. I’m very proud of how I managed it.”
Juncadella’s job was made even harder by the fact that he only had fresh tires on the left-hand side for the final stint, with Saucy quickly closing in again on the Corvette driver after losing ground with a longer final stop.
“On the right side we had the qualifying tires, which were a bit older, so in all the left-hand corners we were losing a lot compared to him,” he explained.
“Especially Turn 10 [Saucy] was very quick and almost coming alongside me at the end of sector two. But still you know your job in that scenario, you have to focus on yourself, hit your marks, make no mistakes.
“It was longer than I would have hoped. I don’t recall a race where I’ve been in the lead and had to hold it for so long.”
Juncadella added that he took inspiration from his drive aboard the WeatherTech Racing Mercedes-AMG at Motul Petit Le Mans two years ago, when he was forced to defend from the Pfaff Motorsports Porsche of Kevin Estre for much of the final hour.
“That was one of my proudest races,” he recalled. “I was just thinking about that scenario: I did that two years ago to win the race, and I did it again here.”
For his part, Saucy admitted that his lack of GT experience may have been a decisive factor in his battle with Juncadella, as he secured the runner-up spot in the No. 95 car he shares with James Cottingham and Sebastien Baud.
“I did my maximum,” said the Swiss driver. “I was faster but [Juncadella] was really, really strong in front of me. Always where I had the possibility to overtake him, he was always really, really strong. So it was really difficult to overtake him.
“We know he’s a very strong driver, also it’s only my second year in GTs, so I still need to understand more with the GT. So maybe in the future I can can be faster than him.
“There is not so much [tire] deg [at Lusail]. If there was more deg, it would have been a bit easier because there is some possibility.
“But as there was a minimum gap [in terms of pace] between each other, it was really difficult to overtake him.”
Davey Euwema contributed to this report
