IRON LYNX TAKES ELMS POLE, FACES ILL-FATED RACE IN BARCELONA

An extremely promising start of the weekend developed into a tough race for Iron Lynx at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as the team lined up for the opening round of the European Le Mans Series.

After showing high potential in testing, and having done a significant amount of work on the data collected, qualifying rewarded the team with an amazing result. Martin Berry handed the Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 car its maiden pole position with an extremely strong run on Saturday. The Singapore-based driver put up a stellar opening stint too, maximizing the team’s strategy and handing the car to teammate Lorcan Hanafin in a close P2. Unfortunately, while he was storming towards the class lead, the British racer had to come back to the pits for a throttle issue and the #63 crew was forced to stop for good with about one hour to go.

“I’m obviously massively disappointed not to be able to finish after such a strong start,” said Hanafin. “Martin did a fantastic job both in qualifying and in the race, but a small issue with the throttle meant we couldn’t finish. It’s better to bring the car home in one piece rather than risk everything on track. It’s still a long championship, and we have five races to go. Full focus now is on Paul Ricard.”

“We had a really nice build-up and the race was going quite well,” said Berry. “The car felt fantastic and the team had done a great job. Racing doesn’t go your way sometimes and we had a mechanical issue that ended our race. We look forward to moving to the next round, where I’m sure we’ll be competitive and there will be plenty of opportunities to claw back.”

The #9 Oreca LMP2 racecar suffered a similar fate. Matteo Cairoli put up a superb run on Saturday, fighting for pole and capturing a front-row start. Jonas Ried started the race and by the time he came back to the pits for his first stop, he was in a comfortable lead. Unfortunately, an electric issue prevented the car from refiring and it took many laps for the problem to be solved. Cairoli and Maceo Capietto ran in the final stints, with the Frenchman setting the fastest lap of the race.

“We had everything we needed to do well today,” said Cairoli. “Unfortunately, the electric issues forced us to stop for many laps. It hurts, because I think we could have aimed for a great result. Still, the championship just started, we will go again at Circuit Paul Ricard and we will keep pushing.”

Positive notes came from the youngest Iron Lynx stalwarts, Matteo Pianezzola and Gregorio Bertocco. The Italian pairing made a brilliant debut in the prototype class of the Ligier European Series, securing second place in Race 1 before ending up P4 in Race 2. They stand second in points.

The European Le Mans Series and the Ligier European Series will be back in early May at Circuit Paul Ricard, while Iron Lynx will be competing at home in a couple of weeks for the Easter challenge at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola.

Andrea Piccini – Team Principal & CEO: “It is really a pity. Together with Mercedes-AMG we had built an almost perfect weekend. We worked extremely hard to tune the engine management system during the prologue, and to manage the tire wear in the race. A podium would have been a fantastic result to start the season. LMP2 was looking extremely promising too, and we were confident we would have been in the mix at the end. Everyone on the team would have deserved a great result. Still, we made more steps forward and we are ready to come back on track for FIA WEC at home in Imola.”