SILVER LININGS: LAMBORGHINI IRON LYNX SHOWS PACE, LEADS LAPS, BEFORE STOPPING FOR CONTACT DAMAGE

Lamborghini Iron Lynx is set to come back from Indianapolis with positive takeaways despite contact – and the resulting damage – which put the #63 Lamborghini SC63 LMDh race car out of contention in the second half of the race. As the TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks went green at the Racing Capital of the World, rain started to fall consistently, and with Romain Grosjean behind the wheel, the team started fighting back after a challenging qualifying.

The fast Frenchman gained position making good moves, and eventually cruised to the lead, quickly sailing away with fast laps. Not much later, a pit-lane infringement cost the team a drive-through penalty, which Matteo Cairoli served immediately. A subsequent safety car intervention gave him the chance to catch the pack, and beginning with a scintillating restart, the Italian went on to regain position.

Although a positioning issues at the next driver change meant another slight drop back, things seemed set for another battle now with Andrea Caldarelli behind the wheel. Unfortunately, subsequent contact damage eventually caused him to have to come back to the pit-lane and to the garage, where the team had to retire the car. 

As the team sign off from a tough September run featuring three six-hour races in four weeks, preparations are already beginning for another classic event of the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup calendar, the 2024 Petit Le Mans, set for mid-October at Road Atlanta. Despite the eventful Indy race, the team is looking forward to taking the positive improvements of late into the coming event.

There are strong positive aspects to underline today. For the first time, we were able to contend for a potential podium position and even for the lead with our strong trio of drivers. Still, we faced some challenges in terms of execution and operation that we need to analyse and work on for the upcoming events. Addressing these issues is a key part of our learning experience and as much as taking away the good, we need to work hard to make overall progress and improve our package. We feel we are moving in the right direction. The Petit Le Mans is around the corner, and we are looking forward to a clean run there.

Emmanuel Esnault, Racing Director

It was a positive race until the point we had to retire. I think we have shown great potential in wet conditions, while we still have some work to do in the dry because it’s still pretty tough to keep pace with the others. Although I’m disappointed about the results, I’m quite happy about the performance in general. We deserved a good result today.

Matteo Cairoli

It’s a pity because we had a really good potential and I feel we deserved a better result. We’re probably not the fastest car out there in dry conditions, but definitely, in mixed or wet conditions we were very quick. When I took the car at the pit stop we had some issues and we came out in P10. Then I managed to pass two cars a few laps before the contact. I was on the inside, and I think the other driver did not see me, hitting the rear left tyre. In the impact, we broke something in the rear suspension, so we had to retire.

Andrea Caldarelli

I think there are a lot of positives in this weekend. We looked good in Free Practice 2, where we finished P3, but although qualifying was a little more difficult, we were improving step by step. On the wet, we were flying, and the car was really amazing. I managed to take the lead and pull away which was fantastic. Operationally in IMSA, there are things that we can improve a bit but generally, it was a positive weekend. It was a shame that we had to retire. We will analyse and make it stronger and come back for Petit Le Mans, which is going to be another tough battle.

Romain Grosjean