IRON LYNX PERSEVERES TO FINISH 2024 LE MANS 24 HOURS

Iron Lynx faced a tough Le Mans 24 Hours, but the team leaves the event having shown promising pace from the #60 Lamborghini Huracán LMGT3 Evo 2 driven by Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni and Lamborghini Factory Driver Franck Perera, and the #9 ORECA 07-Gibson co-run with Proton Competition piloted by Bent Viscaal, Jonas Ried and Macéo Capietto.

Le Mans 24 Hours
Le Mans was unseasonably cold for the 92nd running of the great 24-hour race, but the team’s cars were ready for the week of track action. Free Practice and Qualifying were split across Wednesday and Thursday ahead of the race running from Saturday into the night and the following day on Sunday.
 
Franck was behind the wheel for the main Qualifying session, which determined which cars would reach Hyperpole. He did a great job in the #60, finishing in fourth place to secure a spot in the final shootout. Claudio was behind the wheel in Hyperpole and placed the car a commendable eighth. The #9 car was qualified by Iron Lynx’s newest driver Bent Viscaal and he did a good job to end the session in 12th.
 
Matteo took the start in car #60 and in the early part of the race was able to make up a couple of places and run in sixth early on. Claudio took the next stint, just as the circuit started to become tricky with a rain shower. He had a good run before handing over to Franck, maintaining good pace throughout.
 
Unfortunately, another rain shower occurred during Claudio’s next stint and he had an accident in the tough conditions after the second chicane down the Mulsanne just after the six-hour mark. Claudio was able to drive the hobbled car back to the pits for repairs.

READ MORE: Highlights and achievements for Iron Dames at Le Mans 24 Hours
 
With an incredible effort from the team, the #60 reappeared on the track just an hour after the initial incident, now with Matteo behind the wheel.
 
The #9 LMP2 meanwhile was started by Bent, and he worked into the top 10 in the early stages. An outstanding stop by the team during the first visit to the pits vaulted the car into the lead for the second hour.
 
The rain shower hampered the team’s progress and it dropped down the order as Macéo took over. Jonas took over but just before the six-hour mark, having recovered to fifth, but the car came to a halt with a technical problem.

READ MORE: Top-10 finish on debut for Lamborghini SC63 at Le Mans

As the halfway point of the race approached, there was heavy rain and this brought out a very long Safety Car which meant the #60 was not able to make up any ground during the night. The team persevered on regardless and continued until the very end, picking off positions from those who retired late on to come home in 16th to complete a double finish on debut for the Huracán in this great race.

French Rally Championship
 
Over in the east of France, Réhane Gany, Jean-Baptiste Franceschi and Sarah Rumeau were competing on the latest round of the French Tarmac Rally Championship, Rallye Vosges – Grand-Est. 
 
While it proved a challenging weekend for Franceschi, who was denied the result his superb speed showed he deserved through a spate of punctures, Gany recorded his best French championship finish with a fantastic fourth place in his Ford Fiesta Rally2.
 
Sarah’s charge was compromised by a puncture which she and Julie Amblard were forced to stop and change, but strong pace thereafter enabled her to climb into the top-10 and finish eighth overall ahead of World Rally Championship driver Georg Linnamäe. 

Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe
 
Also in action at the Circuit de la Sarthe was Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe, with the first race being the 200th in Super Trofeo history, at the same venue where the very first took place.

In the first Qualifying, our three Pro cars placed in fifth position with Pavel Lefterov, eighth with Jesse Salmenautio and 12th with Edgar Maloigne. Joran Leneutre took fourth position in the Pro-Am category while John Seale placed 7th in LB Cup.

Summarising the race one, Edgar and Georgi Dimitrov did a great job and climbed up to fourth after making up positions on the final lap. The #4 of Joran and Claude-Yves Gosselin held position while John had a controlled race up to a solid sixth.

Unfortunately in the first lap of the race,  Jesse was pushed off the circuit after a good start, while Pavel was forced to end his race due to a mechanical issue while running a promising third in car #41.  As a consequence, it was bad luck for Giorgio Amati and Stefan Bostandjiev who could not get behind the wheel.

After a very promising Qualifying 2 in which Georgi Dimitrov secured pole position in car #43, following a few tyre issues occurring to some of the other teams in the first race, Lamborghini Squadra Corse determined that the second race could not be continued safely and was cancelled.

Ligier European Series
 
It was a case of promising pace from Gregorio Bertocco and Matteo Pianezzola at Le Mans, starting from fourth on the grid for the single race in the Ligier European Series.
 
The duo moved up to third early on and was running in second ahead of the pitstop phase but damage sustained from an incident led them to an early retirement.

Everyone within the Iron Lynx family can be proud of the effort put in at Le Mans after what was our biggest event of the year. Bringing home all four Lamborghinis in the cars’ debut at this race is a fantastic achievement and for the pair of SC63s to perform well in a very competitive field shows just how far the project has come in a short space of time. The Iron Dames once again came so close to a podium in the Huracán’s first Le Mans 24 Hours, while the resilience shown by the #60 crew was great to see and highlights our team’s philosophy. We do not have long to think about this race as we have to look ahead to Watkins Glen next week as our IMSA Sportscar Championship season continues.

Iron Lynx Team Principal & CEO, Andrea Piccini