IRON LYNX SECURES PODIUM, CHAMPIONSHIP BOOST IN 4 HOURS OF SPA

BERRY, HANAFIN, SCHILLER CLAIM SECOND-PLACE FINISH

Iron Lynx secured its second podium finish of the year at Spa-Francorchamps, managing an intense and drama-filled race to equal its best finish of the season and secure needed points. Delivering a stellar late run, Fabian Schiller crossed the finish line in second place, less than a second away from P1, after a race-long fight for the win by the team.

With multiple safety car, full course yellow, and VSC situations that impacted the strategy, the race was incredibly tricky to manage, but the Iron Lynx squad put up a flawless run on track, at the pitwall and in the pits.

The start of the weekend was a positive one on Saturday, as Martin Berry delivered his third pole position of the year in four races to master tough weather conditions. The Singapore resident took off from P6 in the race, following Imola’s 5-place grid penalty, but soon started to catch up to the car in front, climbing up to second place.

Berry kept cool as the eventful race played out and the team performed under pressure in terms of strategy and stops, sending out the car P1 after the first driver change. Lorcan Hanafin went back on-track for his stint, and while the #59 car got the nod on him with a pace advantage, he laid down extremely competitve laptimes to stay in the trail of the early favourite.

In the following driver change cycle, Schiller came back in P1 again and retained it in a hard-fought lead. A splash was necessary with a handful of minutes on the clock, and the overcut enabled the eventual winners to squeak by the gray Mercedes-AMG at the pit exit.

While Schiller took second, the team secured 18 points, which propelled it to a close sixth place in the standings, just seven points off the lead.

The #9 Iron Lynx Proton Oreca 07 LMP2 car had a tough day after a positive initial stint for Jonas Ried. The team was caught out by an untimely Virtual Safety Car, coming right after their second pit-stop. As a result, most of the competitors got the chance to stop under VSC, and that pushed Matteo Cairoli on the back foot. The Italian later suffered a slow puncture, losing valuable ground in an unscheduled pit stop. He and Maceo Capietto made an impressive effort to recover up to P12, which was the best they could achieve today.

Matteo Pianezzola and Gregorio Bertocco had a weekend to forget in the fourth round of the Ligier European Series. In Race 1, Pianezzola was sidelined early by contact with the barriers, while Bertocco was hit from behind and pushed into a slow-starting car in Race 2. The #60 Ligier JS P4 ended up with a double DNF.

While Iron Lynx will be back with its two Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 in FIA WEC in a couple of weeks at Circuit of The Americas, the European Le Mans Series will make a welcome return to Silverstone in mid-September at Silverstone.

We came to Spa-Francorchamps to maximize what we had, and we think we accomplished that goal. It’s obviously a bit disappointing to end up second after leading so much of the race, but we couldn’t have performed any better, both on track and in the pits. We were missing a tiny bit of pace that eventually made the difference. In qualifying, the weather was an equalizer, enabling Martin to continue his impressive qualifying form with pole. In the race, we came away with our second podium in four races, are also fully back in the championship hunt. All three drivers were quick and consistent, and especially Martin bounced back from Imola with some outstanding overtakes in his stint. It’s a pity for the #9 crew, as there was not much they could have done differently. We will all get back to Silverstone very motivated to get the job done!

Andrea Piccini – Team Principal & CEO

I think it was good execution by the team today to finish P2, we had good pitstops and strategy, and we maximized our potential. Walking away with second place is good although it is a bit frustrating after leading most of the last hour. The Aston had a small advantage in terms of fuel and that enabled them to get to the front. It is how it goes sometimes, and it was good to get a result again after imola. There are some things we can improve for Silverstone and we will keep working on the car to make further progress. We should be in good shape for the two last rounds.

Fabian Schiller – Driver car #63

Really happy to get back on the podium today. Obviously we’re a bit disappointed we missed out on the win by so little, but we are delighted to have bounced back after Imola. I’m looking forward to the last two round of the European Le Mans Series.

Lorcan Hanafin – Driver car #63

Really good progress by the team, we were so close to taking the overall result but we just missed out. Still, our race today shows all the hard work put in by the team. We should come away happy with that. We are still in the championship hunt now and we are excited for Silverstone!”

Martin Berry – Driver car #63