Lamborghini SC63s maiden FIA WEC campaign ends in DNF in 8 Hours of Bahrain

#60 Iron Lynx of Cairoli, Schiavoni and Cressoni finish strongly to take fourth place in LMGT3

Sant’Agata Bolognese/Sakhir, 2 November 2024 – Lamborghini Iron Lynx wrapped up its maiden season in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) with retirement under the lights in the 8 Hours of Bahrain after a punishing final round of the year.

The #63 combination of Edoardo Mortara, Daniil Kvyat and Mirko Bortolotti raced well in the early stages, running as high as eighth, but encountered a water pressure issue in the final hour which forced them out of the race prematurely.

In LMGT3, the #60 crew of Matteo Cairoli, Matteo Cressoni and Claudio Schiavoni produced a superb drive in their Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 to finish fourth from the back of the grid, coming up just short of a second podium finish of 2024. Meanwhile, the #85 Iron Dames of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey missed out on a chance to claim a podium of their own, finishing 10^th after a late drivethrough penalty.

Free Practice and Qualifying – Hypercar

The final weekend of the year began on Thursday with the first of three free practice sessions. With track temperatures varying greatly between the afternoon and evening running, tyre degradation and drop-off was a lot higher than anticipated. Tyre management, therefore, was the main priority during FP1 (in which the #63 finished sixth) and FP2. The team then conducted a qualifying run in FP3, setting the third-quickest time, while others focused on race simulations. Kvyat was again at the wheel of the SC63 for qualifying and, despite suffering slightly with understeer during his fastest lap, managed a best time of 1m48.555, splitting the Peugeots and ending up just over a second off the quickest car.

Race – Hypercar

The #63 started on the preferable hard Michelin compound with Mortara producing another one of his stunning opening laps to leapfrog eight positions to run a superb eighth in the early stages. With ambient and track temperatures at their highest all weekend, degradation proved a major challenge in the first stint, with the SC63 dropping to ninth before the first pit-stops. Mortara stayed aboard, the team electing to change two tyres which meant the #63 fell down the order in the second stint as tyre preservation became a critical factor. As night began to fall, Bortolotti took over and kept the car on-track and made the most of four new tyres to overtake the #35 Alpine before handing over to Kvyat for his first stint. Kvyat stayed in the car under the virtual safety car period and was engaged in a lively ebb-and-flow scrap with the #99 Porsche. Bortolotti, back at the wheel, then moved up the order as others in front hit strife and had looked evenly poised to prevail in his scrap with the Proton Porsche. However, a water pressure issue forced the car into the garage in the final hour and, after returning to the track for a lap, retired with just over half an hour remaining.

Free Practice and Qualifying – LMGT3

With regular driver Franck Perera sitting out the season finale in order to focus on his participation in the FIA WEC Rookie Test on Sunday, Cairoli joined Schiavoni and Cressoni in the #60. The car was third fastest in FP1 but ended up 13^th in the second session after an issue. High winds caused dust and sand to reduce grip levels even further in FP3, but the trio still managed the sixth best time. The #85 Iron Dames concentrated on race optimisation and tyre management on Thursday with Gatting and Frey happy with overall race pace. Bovy took over for qualifying and made it into the top 10 Hyperpole session with the third quickest time, before consolidating a second-row start with fourth in the shootout.

Race – LMGT3

Bovy maintained fourth place at the start of the race and stayed with the leading group despite struggling for grip and tyre wear in the opening stages. The #85 then doubled stinted the tyres it started the race on, which initially cost the Dames multiple positions and dropping to 14^th by the time Bovy handed over to Frey. The early pain paid off as the Magenta Huracán made progress towards half-distance, going slightly off sequence and using the fuel advantage to run at the front of the race before Gatting jumped in. The all-female crew then got back on sequence with a free pit-stop during the VSC period, allowing Bovy to move into the lead as she completed her minimum drive time. Frey then dropped to fourth after attempting to snatch the lead at the second VSC restart, but the #85 subsequently dropped out of contention with a drivethrough penalty due to a VSC procedure infringement, eventually finishing 10^th.

The #60’s race was a slow burner, with Schiavoni completing a single stint early on, alternating with Cressoni before getting back in towards the halfway marker. The car showed incredible pace, particularly with Cairoli aboard as the Lamborghini Factory Driver set the fastest lap of the race as night fell. Schiavoni then completed his drive time after the two VSC periods, handing back to Cressoni entering the final hours, settling into a solid fifth place. Cairoli then took over for the final stint and showed strong pace to challenge the pair of Corvettes in front and get close to the podium. The #60 did briefly take third place with a dive down the inside of turn eight, but Cairoli ran too deep and had to settle for a competitive fourth place at the end.

Quotes

Mirko Bortolotti: “It’s definitely not the end to the season that we wanted this weekend as we had to retire with a technical issue. It’s been a really challenging and difficult season for us, obviously the first season for Iron Lynx and Lamborghini in the WEC and we expected to have some difficulties coming into the year, but I must say that towards the end of the year we were still struggling with the car. It’s been a disappointing year honestly, and we deserved to at least finish the final race. But anyway, the guys worked so hard all season, so thanks for their dedication and effort, and let’s see what the future holds.”

Daniil Kvyat: “It’s been a challenging year, of course the results were not what we want, but knowing this was our first year in the championship there were some encouraging performances, and we were in the mix several times, fighting with a lot more experienced rival. Of course, there are a lot of areas to improve, we know this, and hopefully we will be able to bring the updates that we really need to make our package more competitive. I am proud of the efforts of the boys and girls in the team, the dedication of the team has been amazing.”

Edoardo Mortara: “Unfortunately, we had a small technical issue, and we were unable to finish the race. As always, we gave it our best and showed some good competitiveness at some points in the race. We were lacking a little bit of pace too, which is always frustrating when you are not really fully able to compete with the others. But this year we have been learning a lot, we knew it would be a tough challenge against some really tough competitors, it was not going to be easy. We’ve improved but hopefully we will back with a more competitive package, this is the goal of the entire team. We’ve shown some performance but it’s now up to us to extract the maximum performance.”