IRON LYNX DELIVERS POSITIVE OPENING RUN IN BARCELONA

It was a very positive run for Iron Lynx at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as the team lined up for the opening round of the 2026 European Le Mans Series.

The #62 Team Qatar by Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 led for most of the day, handling the race to perfection. Starting from pole position after becoming the first Qatari to achieve such a result in ELMS yesterday, Abdulla Al-Khelaifi pulled away from the rest of the field and kept the pace with the more experienced drivers. Julian Hanses delivered an equally spirited stint, keeping the lead for the duration of his drive with hard defense and brilliant traffic management. The final stint saw Adam Christodoulou struggle and drop a few spots, crossing the line in P4.

Al-Khelaifi won the Goodyear Wingfoot award, as he was the MVP of the day, voted by fans. Overall, it was an impressive first for Team Qatar as it looks forward to round 2 at Circuit Paul Ricard.

The #63 car ended up in a promising P7. Ameerh Naran showed strong pace and racecraft in his stint, and despite picking-up a drive-through, he charged his way back in impressive fashion. The timing of two neutralizations, close to the pit-stop window, also hampered the effort. Still, Rui Andrade and Sergio Sétte Câmara were perfect in their stints, securing a points finish that represents a great starting point for the rest of the year.

It hurts to end up like this after dominating the race, but we must be proud of what we delivered today. The strategy, pit-stops and race management was really good, and especially the two bronzes, Abdulla and Ameerh did an outstanding job. It’s only the start of the year. We are looking forward to the rest with confidence and with the goal of making more and more improvements.

Andrea Piccini – Team Principal & CEO

Unfortunately we missed the podium by a few tenths, but we still showed great pace. It was a challenging start of the week but we really managed to extract the maximum from the package to get valuable points. I want to thank the fans who voted for me for the Goodyear Wingfoot Award.

Abdulla Al-Khelaifi – Driver, car #63

The team did a good job. Barcelona is a high-deg track and everyone had to deal with this. Still we were quite happy with the balance and we are proud of what we achieved. We got a penalty in the beginning, which kind of put us on the back foot early in the race. We tried to come back and we finished in P7. For sure we got the potential to do more, but starting the season with points is not bad. We need to work together as a team, analyze what we could have done better, and come back stronger for Paul Ricard.

Rui Andrade – Driver, car #63

We had a good race and we finished P7 in the end. This was our first race with a new lineup, and Ameerh is new to the series as well. All things considered, it was a good result. We had some penalties, and a drive-through, but we showed the potential to do very well this season and fight.

Sergio Sette Camara – Driver, car #63