Lamborghini Iron Lynx secures promising seventh place in IMSA GTP debut at Sebring
Entering the mighty 12 Hours of Sebring, Matteo Cairoli, Andrea Caldarelli, Romain Grosjean and the whole team performed reliably and stayed in the pack with competitive lap times from the beginning while collecting an invaluable amount of data and surviving the treacherous Floridian venue. Cairoli drove the car at the start, while Grosjean and Caldarelli followed in the rotation, trying to push as much as possible while saving tyres and working on the car's optimisation.
Even when small teething issues, including one with a door that led to an unscheduled stop, caused the car to go one lap down, the team kept pushing, making the most of a caution to regain the lead lap. In the closing stages, despite a slightly fading pace with cooler temperatures, Caldarelli was able to attack and crossed the finish line only a few hundredths of a second away from sixth.
Even with the challenges of Sebring, including its extremely bumpy surface, the transition heading into the night, the proximity of the barriers, and sheer attrition, the Lamborghini Iron Lynx operation not only survived but did it with great promise, only at its second race as a team after the 10 Hours of Qatar WEC run.
Lamborghini Iron Lynx will now start preparations for its home event, the 6 Hours of Imola, round 2 of the FIA WEC.
Emmanuel Esnault, Racing Director: "We can be proud of what we accomplished at Sebring. We completed one of the toughest races in the world and overcame every obstacle that came to us. Our drivers and team members worked incredibly hard, constantly adapting and focusing on the big picture. There is still a lot of work to be done, but we feel we made great progress at Sebring that we will carry forward in the rest of our 2024 journey. Making our first IMSA race has been a great challenge, as this project is still very new, but here and in Qatar we proved that as a team, we can make a difference. Our focus now shifts to our home race at Imola, but we are leaving the USA extremely motivated and we cannot wait to be back on track."
Matteo Cairoli: "I didn't expect such a great result and I'm delighted for what we achieved today in our first race with this car. I want to thank the team because they never stopped working as hard as possible. I'm extremely happy to be part of this team. To finish less than 30 seconds away from the lead in a 12-hour race on such a tough track is something I could not believe at the start. We now enjoy the moment, and we will prepare to get back on track even more competitive in the next rounds."
Romain Grosjean: "I'm very very happy with the race, we knew that the Sebring 12 Hours is one of the toughest out there, but I think it's very positive that we managed to finish it in the lead lap in P7. There's a lot of work that we can still do and I'm very proud of everyone. I'm excited for the future!"
Andrea Caldarelli: "It was a very fun race. In my first double stint, we had a very good pace and I was very confident in the car. In the end, I knew I had to do almost a triple stint, so I took it quite easy at the beginning. We started to have small issues here and there and I didn't know if we could finish. It was so hard, but in the end we were able to fight with the two cars in front, which was unexpected. I think the team deserves this. To finish the race was our target, to start to fight was not really a target and it all goes to these guys!"
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