IRON LYNX HAS TOUGH RACE DESPITE GOOD PACE AND PROGRESS

Iron Lynx put up a strong pace this weekend in the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, Round 5 of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, although a few issues along the way prevented the team from reaping the rewards. Starting from Practice, the Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 racecars fully showcased the progress made so far this season, and come Qualifying, the team matched its best result of the year with P4. Martin Berry placed the #61 car in P5 in the first session, while silver-rated Lin Hodenius went up one spot at the end of Hyperpole.

Driving the #60 car for the first time outside Le Mans, Andrew Gilbert continued his adaptation process and set remarkably close qualifying lap times to some of the most experienced drivers. Starting in P18, Gilbert gained further confidence, although contact while battling his way up resulted in a penalty. The consistent run continued with teammates Fran Rueda and Lorcan Hanafin, who did a great job in managing the tyres and race.

The #61 car had a solid start as Berry stayed in close contention for the top five. The team went for an aggressive strategy and put the Platinum driver in the car for the second stint. The decision proved successful. Mercedes-AMG Performance Driver Maxime Martin climbed up to second place in what could have definitely been a podium run.

Unfortunately, the crew was also affected by two penalties for Full Course Yellow infringements. Lin Hodenius drove in the middle stages and played once again a starring role with a quick and consistent stint, although he had to serve drive-throughs for the prior infringements. In the closing hours, Martin was fighting back, but a technical issue eventually brought the car to the garage for good in the 6th hour.

The team will now continue working to prepare for the upcoming challenges. The FIA World Endurance Championship will be back in early September at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas.

We have to look at the positives. This weekend we had a much better pace and we made good use of it in qualifying, where we achieved a valuable P4. Despite still being a bit off in terms of pure performance compared to Aston Martin and Lexus, we were very consistent, and we had superior tire management. All drivers were making positive steps, despite the fact that most of them were driving for the first time at Interlagos, which is a very technical circuit. Today, the pace and strategy could have brought us to the podium. We are getting there, and we will continue working ahead of the three final rounds of the season.

Andrea Piccini – Team Principal & CEO

It was definitely a promising weekend. We have been quite competitive for the whole weekend and it’s again a good step from race to race. We are happy with that. We had a good qualifying, and a good beginning of the race. We were in the top positions. Unfortunately a technical issue forced us to retire. It’s a good lesson, it’s promising, we’re getting better so we look forward to the next race.

Maxime Martin – Driver, car #61