The Lamborghini SC63 reaches the end of the first historic FIA WEC outing in Qatar

The Lamborghini SC63 reaches the end of the first historic FIA WEC outing in Qatar


High Reliability earns #63 top 15 results as Iron Dames take first points in LMGT3

Sant’Agata Bolognese/Lusail, 2 March 2024 – The Lamborghini Iron Lynx produced a historic result for the SC63 LMDh model by reaching the finish of its first ever qualifying round in the top class of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship in Qatar.

The #63 crew of Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara brought the car home in 15th place at the end of 10 hours of racing at the Lusail International Circuit, showing solid reliability and a solid platform to improve on for future races.

After qualifying the car on Friday, Kvyat started the race with driving duties split evenly between the three. The No. 63 kept its nose clean throughout and avoided any penalties and also fought against several experienced rival teams, gaining knowledge and sense of the car and the championship at every stage.

The Lamborghini Iron Lynx will now turn its attention to another new challenge: the second round of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – and its first competitive outing on American soil – at Sebring in two weeks.

Free Practice and Graduation

Following the completion of the official pre-season Prologue earlier in the week, the scheduled competitive action began with two free practice sessions on Thursday. The #63 machine rode 40 laps in the morning stop session, where the track temperature was at its highest, and set the 16th fastest time. FP2 took place under evening floodlights and, with Mortara at the wheel, the car ended up 12th fastest on the timesheets. Unfortunately, a gearbox problem forced Bortolotti to stop in turn seven with 10 minutes remaining, showing the red flag and ending the session prematurely.

Friday morning gave the team a chance to prepare for qualifying during final practice, with Kvyat setting the fastest time of the three drivers (1m42.653) earlier. Tire build-up was a real issue for many crews during the 12-minute qualifying session but Kvyat still managed to set the best lap-time for the SC63 with a 1m41.699 to leave the #63 car in 18th place on the grid, with lots of room for improvement.

Race

The race started at 11:00 local time and, with Kvyat at the wheel, the #63 successfully navigated the opening salvo, maintaining position and eventually breaking into the top 15 before making his first pit stop. In the early stages, the pace of the SC63 was equal to the cars around it and Kvyat was able to battle the #35 Alpine and a pair of BMWs nearing the end of his two laps. Similarly, Mortara was involved in an entertaining battle with the #51 Ferrari in the third hour before slipping back after another stoppage.

From that moment on, the Lamborghini SC63 continued its plan to set laps, with particular focus on reliability and driving efficiency in the pits. Bortolotti took over and led the car until the halfway stage before handing it back to Kvyat, with each driver driving an average of 30 laps in the car.

Unfortunately, the #63 experienced a front suspension issue that forced Kvyat to slow down and lose four laps to the leaders with more than three hours of the race remaining. Despite this hiccup, the team remained focused and kept the car running, as the pace picked up going into the closing stages. Mortara completed the three rounds with ease, taking advantage of technical problems for the #15 BMW and #38 Jota Porsche to take the checkered flag in a creditable 15th place.

LMGT3

Free Practice and Graduation

The crews of #60 Iron Lynx and #85 Iron Dames entered the weekend off the back of a productive Prologue and accelerated kilometers during free practice. In qualifying, Sarah Bovy took the #85 Huracán she shared with Michelle Gatting and Doriane Pin to Hyperpole and secured sixth place on the race grid. The 60 players of Claudio Schiavoni, Matteo Cressoni and Franck Perera qualified for 17th place.

Race

From the start, there was drama as Bovy made contact with the #59 McLaren, the unfortunate result of a first turn stall. The stewards saw it as a race event and the #85 settled into a good rhythm inside the top 10 and were involved in a close battle. With Gatting at the wheel in his first stint, the #85 slipped down the order as the team opted to save tires at the fourth pit stop. However, it entered the second half of the race and took Lamborghini’s first world championship points in eighth place. With the #60, Schiavoni kept himself out of trouble and completed his minimum driving time of two hours and 55 minutes and, despite a late car penalty for violating the track limits, Cressoni and Perera brought the car to 12th in the end.

Quote

Mirko Bortolotti: “I think we have to look at the positive and for sure, we can consider this as a good start to the journey, we managed to complete the race that was our goal. It’s been an extended test as we’ve been learning with each session this weekend and I think it’s a good starting point for us. There is a lot of work ahead of us that we are excited to continue. But for Qatar, it has been a good start to finish the race and collect a lot of important data for the future.

Daniel Kvyat: “It was important to finish the race and get to the checkered flag today, because we need to get a lot of information for the drivers, engineers and mechanics, and we did as we planned. It’s a good start, we have a solid base, a lot of work to do to get to the top, but personally I want reach the top one day with this team and the work starts today.”

Edoardo Mortara: “This is the end of our week in Qatar, it has been a long week and many hours of hard work and finally, we are really happy to be able to finish the race. Our first race in the WEC was not easy for us but we are happy to see that we can compete with others, obviously there are many things to improve, but at least in terms of reliability we proved that we can finish the race without any major issues. Now, we just need to understand how to extract more performance from our package, we will definitely have a long day ahead of us but it is a great project and personally I enjoyed my first race weekend with Lamborghini very much and I’m already looking forward to the second race.”

Rouven Mohr, Chief Technical Officer of Lamborghini: “I am very happy that we have finished our first LMDh. This is a very exciting time for us because it was a big challenge and, at the end of the day, the results have shown that the team worked very well, and the basic performance of the car is there. For sure , we have to improve a lot to be more stable and overall, I am very happy.