IRON LYNX HAS TROUBLEFREE START IN IMOLA FIA WEC PROLOGUE

Fresh off a brilliant start to the season in the European Le Mans Series, Iron Lynx has travelled back to its home track, near the Cesena headquarters, and is now set for the FIA World Endurance Championship season opener at Imola.

The team has kicked the Italian weekend off with the Prologue, a one-day test running over eight hours and replacing the original opening act in Qatar. Although the weather has not fully cooperated, the #61 and #79 cars ran in multiple conditions. Having collected a lot of data and insight, the team has what it needs to put everything in place and perform throughout the rest of the weekend.

Returning to the series following to the podium finish in the 2025 finale, the #61 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 will be driven by the retained Martin Berry and Maxime Martin, joined by Rui Andrade. The reigning ELMS Champion, and a former FIA WEC World Champion, is joining as a silver-rated driver with the goal continuing a so far very successful endurance racing career.

The #79 Mercedes featured its full-season lineup of Johannes Zelger, Matteo Cressoni, and Lin Hodenius, who were running together for the first time ahead the season debut. While Zelger has started his maiden FIA WEC weekend after some solid testing, and Cressoni made his official return to the championship, Hodenius made his first appearance in the series as a Mercedes-AMG Junior Driver.

Conditions were wet at the start of the AM session, but the track quickly improved, which allowed the team to switch to slicks. The afternoon segment featured a brief shower where many teams opted to stay in the garage and focus on preparation, including driver change practice, ahead of what is expected to be a dry weekend.

Both the team’s cars ran trouble-free, except for a harmless spin early in the morning, with solid lap times on the board and loads of work completed. The drivers will be back into action on Thursday with the traditional public appearance in the Imola city center.

We are very satisfied with today’s solid run in the Prologue. We ran smoothly all day despite the challenging and constantly-changing conditions. All drivers performed strongly and we collected a lot of valuable inshights for the start of the season. We have a few days to analyze data and feedback, make more steps and be in full shape for qualifying and the race.

Andrea Piccini – Team Principal & CEO

It was an enjoyable Prologue, I got myself back in the team, back in the rhythm. We struggled with some drizzle, there was a bit of rain, and the track conditions stayed between damp and dry, so it was challenging, but everything was fine, everyone got some good driving time, and we’re ready to go!

Lin Hodenius – Driver, Car 79

Interesting conditions, with a bit of rain and a bit of dryness. We got to try a lot of different things in terms of wet setup and dry setup. It was a really productive day, and the pace is there early, which is good. It’s just the prologue, but we had a lot of learning, collected a lot of data, and we’re in pretty good shape.

Martin Berry – Driver, Car 61