European Le Mans Series – IRON LYNX SHOWS PROMISE AMID CHALLENGING WEEKEND AT SPA
At the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in the European Le Mans Series and Ligier European Series, Iron Lynx raced to honour the memory of Luca Persiani who passed away earlier this week after inspiring generation after generation of racing talent.
European Le Mans Series
LMP2
In the European Le Mans Series’ LMP2 class, Jonas Ried led Qualifying efforts for the #9 crew and started the Four Hours of Spa from eighth on the grid. After briefly falling to ninth at the start, Jonas returned to eighth at the end of the first hour and handed the cockpit over to team-mate, Matteo Cairoli, with two hours and 20 minutes remaining.
Matteo resumed the race in eighth and after navigating countless Safety Car periods, staged a strong comeback performance to battle forward to fourth. Pitting for the first time after extending his opening stint, the Italian handed over to Maceo Capietto, who took the #9 to the chequered flag.
Joining the race in ninth, Maceo took advantage of his pace to fight forward into the top five and continued to push over the final hour to finish seventh, delivering Iron Lynx with its best ELMS LMP2 result of the 2024 season to date.
LMGT3
Hiroshi Hamaguchi led the LMGT3 field to the green flag for the Four Hours of Spa after claiming pole position for the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini crew and showed steady and strong pace over the course of his stint. Hiroshi maintained first place off the line and held the lead over the opening 60 minutes before his 40-second advantage was removed by a Safety Car at the start of the second hour.
Hiroshi held his lead during the restart but sustained steering damage after being clipped by an LMP2 entry in Turn One and was forced to retire with two hours and 42 minutes remaining. Hiroshi, Axcil Jefferies, and Andrea Caldarelli will resume the 2024 ELMS season on 29 September for the Four Hours of Mugello.
Ligier European Series
In the Ligier European Series, Matteo Pianezzola and Gregorio Bertocco returned to the championship’s JS2 R class and showed encouraging pace throughout their weekend at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
In Race One, Matteo made a strong start and ran consistently inside the podium positions, but the crew unfortunately slipped outside of the top three during the pit phase. When Gregorio took the wheel, he continued to run inside the top five but received a drive-through penalty for track limits which demoted him to sixth. In Race Two, an early accident forced the pair to retire.
Matteo and Gregorio will be back in action on 27-28 September at Mugello for the penultimate race weekend of the Ligier European Series’ 2024 season.
Andrea Piccini, Team Principal & CEO, Iron Lynx, said: “Earlier this week, we lost one of our own – Luca Persiani, who was a much-loved part of the Iron Lynx family. At Spa, we wanted honour his memory and I’m proud of the whole team who joined together in the middle of such a difficult period. From LMP2 to LMGT3, and in the Ligier European Series, we showed good pace but sadly, luck wasn’t always on our side. Despite this, there are positives we can still take.”
