Lamborghini Iron Lynx experience encouraging run at Fuji Speedway

Running for the first time on Japanese soil at the majestic Fuji Speedway, Lamborghini Iron Lynx experienced a promising weekend, although an unfortunate drivetrain issue forced the team to retire with less than two hours to go in the 6 Hours of Fuji, round seven of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship.  Continuing the learning and set-up optimisation process carried out since the start of the year, the team celebrated a milestone highlight on Saturday. A spirited drive by Daniil Kvyat in qualifying put the #63 Lamborghini SC63 LMDh racecar for the first time into the Hyperpole session. Kvyat eventually qualified the car in P9 for the race.

The start proved challenging as side-to-side contact relegated Edoardo Mortara to the back after the first corner. However, Mortara bounced back by navigating through some early contact and put up a brilliant performance in the first two and a half hours, as the team extended his stint to benefit from Safety Car situations.   Kvyat jumped in next. Having to deal with an early setback – a 10-second penalty for a pit stop infringement – he showed an extremely strong pace that matched the performance level of the frontrunners. Unfortunately, he suddenly slowed down in sector three and was forced to stop for good.

The goal for the team will be to ride the momentum into the series finale at Bahrain International Circuit, paving the way for another promising run and laying the best foundations for the 2025 season preparations.   While the FIA World Endurance Championship will now be on break for the month of October, the Lamborghini Iron Lynx program will keep pushing ahead for next week's Battle Of The Bricks IMSA event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Emmanuel Esnault, Racing Director: "It feels good to know that the massive effort we have been putting together since the start of the year is gradually paying off. Making it into Hyperpole was definitely a great achievement, and even the pace during the race was more and more consistent despite Fuji being not an easy track to get right, especially running there for the first time. While strategy-wise the team aligned with us and we eventually ended up being in a good place, we know the areas where we have to improve in terms of execution. We must keep pushing in terms of execution and development as we look ahead to the near future and beyond."

Daniil Kvyat: "There have been a lot of encouraging signs this weekend for sure. The strong point was qualifying, as we went into Hyperpole for the first time. We managed to put the car in the working window quite well and now we have to understand how to do it consistently. Even the race pace was encouraging, somewhere in the region of the top 10. Then the drivetrain issue happened and we had to stop on track. It's a shame, and a bit frustrating, but that's racing."

Edoardo Mortara: "There were quite a bit of highs and lows here at Fuji. Qualifying went extremely well, with Daniil being able to get into Hyperpole. It was a good moment. Unfortunately, we had to retire the car in the race, which is obviously not ideal. We will investigate what happened. After the start, we tried to gain an advantage using an alternate strategy, and it was working quite OK. It would have been interesting to see where we would have ended up. We are fighting in the midfield at the moment, and hopefully, if we can improve the car, it would be great to come back to score some points again like we did at Le Mans."

Mirko Bortolotti: "Unfortunately we had to retire in the race. For me, this was a weekend with limited driving, zero laps on Saturday and zero laps on Sunday, but the long run pace on Friday seemed very strong. It's a shame because I think the potential was there to try and fight for the points. We will try to fix the issue and come back stronger."