CHALLENGING HOME WEEKEND BUT PODIUMS SECURED FOR IRON LYNX AT IMOLA

Iron Lynx was in action in both Italy and France, with podiums being picked up in the opening round of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season, a tough weekend in the FIA World Endurance Championship and promising drives in the French Rally Championship.
 
In all, the team had 25 drivers in action ranging from world championship-level competition down to the grassroots in karting across Europe.

FIA World Endurance Championship

The narrow, twisty Imola circuit hosted the second round of the season, with Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni and Lamborghini Factory Driver Franck Perera behind the wheel of the Lamborghini Hurácan GT3 Evo 2.
 
Storms affected the region throughout the weekend, but the skies brightened up for race day. Claudio produced a good qualifying effort on Saturday in the highly competitive LMGT3 class, lining up 18th but with times that improved throughout the session.
 
Sarah Bovy, behind the wheel of the Iron Dames #85, took the team into Hyperpole with the second-fastest time and eventually qualified fifth for the race.
 
The race proved to be hugely chaotic at the start, and Sarah was hit from behind. A technical issue manifested which dropped the #85 many laps down and from there the crew had no opportunity to get back in contention for a result and sadly retired early.
 
Despite the early chaos ahead, the #60 had a calm and measured race. Claudio put in two very solid stints, keeping the car out of trouble and climbing up the order to 14th in the very competitive class before handing over to Matteo.

READ MORE: Lamborghini Iron Lynx shows progress with P12 at Imola

Matteo’s stint featured a similar approach of keeping out of trouble on the twisty track, and he did so despite the conditions starting to become treacherous as rain loomed. The uninterrupted running seen until the rain arrived didn’t play into the hands of the #60.
 
When Franck took over for his double stint, the weather had settled in and it was ready for Wet tyres. The team did everything it could, but there was no opportunity to make up ground and the #60 had to settle for 13th.

Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe

Racing alongside FIA WEC at Imola was Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe for two 50-minute races and Iron Lynx fielded five Hurácans for the event.
 
Qualifying yielded a mixed bag of results, with the Pro #43 entry of Edgar Maloigne and Georgi Dimitrov lining up fourth on the grid for race one, the #42 of Giorgio Amati and Jesse Salmenautio in ninth and the #41 of Pavel Lefterov and Stefan Bostandjiev in 12th. In Pro-Am, the #4 of Claude-Yves Gosselin and Joran Leneutre was sixth, and in Lamborghini Cup the #49 of John Seale in seventh.
 
With a storm looming, the first race got underway. Overtaking proved to be very tricky around the twisty circuit, and the conditions became treacherous very quickly when a storm hit the circuit, bringing high winds and debris onto the circuit.
 
The Safety Car was brought out before the pitstop window, and the rain began to fall lightly just when the window opened. Prior to that, the #43 was running fifth, #42 in sixth, #4 sixth in its class and #49 in eighth in its class while #41 was just outside of the top 10.
 
The cars pitted en masse during the window behind the Safety Car, and the Iron Lynx cars lost out heavily after a promising start. The race was then red flagged after a car crashed heavily behind the Safety Car and the conditions worsened significantly and was not resumed.
 
Race two went notably better for the team, netting two podium finishes. #4 started second, while #49 was fourth and #41 in fourth, #42 in sixth and #43 in 12th.
 
A great opening stint from Pavel put the #41 in contention for the top three early on, including with a memorable pass into Piratella, while Giorgio and Edgar were both in the mix for a top 10 in the hotly contested Pro class.
 
The #43 was forced to retire after being pushed off the track around the pitstop window, but Stefan and Jesse in cars #41 and #42 respectively delivered calm, measured drives to take third and fifth respectively.
 
Joran’s efforts in the #4 were hampered by a trio of Safety Car periods, but he and Claude-Yves fought on to take second place, while John was able to come through and take sixth in the #49.

French Rally Championship

Jean-Baptiste Franceschi delivered a strong top-six finish on the second round of the French Tarmac Championship, the Rallye Rhône Charbonnières.
 
Progressively building his pace aboard the Sarrazin Motorsport-prepared Ford Fiesta Rally2, the Frenchman and co-driver Jules Escartefigue suffered a small issue on the second stage but thereafter began a consistent and impressive rise up the leaderboard to sixth place after 12 demanding stages.
 
That was unfortunately at the expense of team-mate Réhane Gany though, who cruelly lost sixth place on the final stage after picking up a front-right puncture. He had set top-five times alongside co-driver Franck Le Floch but had to settle for 13th overall owing to their flat tyre.
 
Sarah Rumeau and Julie Amblard delivered a hugely encouraging and accomplished performance, displaying impeccable fighting spirit to move up to 12th place over the course of the final day’s six stages after an engine issue placed the crew 18th at the end of Friday’s action.

We have really enjoyed the atmosphere felt at our home event at Imola, and it was fantastic to see so much passion and support for our family across the whole weekend. It has been a well-received inaugural event here and it shows how much sportscar racing is loved by the Italian fans. The FIA WEC race sadly did not go our way today, despite a great effort from the entire team, but everybody continues to learn and improve. However, it was great to begin our Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season with a couple of fine podiums in a very eventful race after brilliant drives by Claude-Yves and our new drivers Joran, Pavel and Stefan. We now look ahead to the next round of these championships at Spa-Francorchamps.

Iron Lynx Team Principal & CEO, Andrea Piccini