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Lamborghini SC63 Endures Difficult Weekend At FIA WEC São Paulo Event
Lamborghini Iron Lynx faced misfortune during the FIA World Endurance Championship's return to Interlagos, Brazil. The #63 crew of Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat, and Edoardo Mortara finished 17th in the 6 Hours of São Paulo due to a late puncture. This setback came after their first top 10 finish with the Lamborghini SC63 LMDh prototype at Le Mans.
The weekend was a learning experience for Lamborghini Iron Lynx as they had never raced at Interlagos before. The team focused on understanding how the SC63 and Michelin tyres performed on the technical track, which caused higher than usual degradation. Free practice sessions were challenging, with FP1 cut short due to an incident causing barrier damage. The #63 car ended up 16th in FP1 and FP2 but improved to sixth in FP3. Kvyat qualified the #63 18th on the grid for the race.
Tyre strategy played a crucial role at the start of the six-hour race. The #63 began on harder tyres, with Kvyat struggling initially but moving up towards the top 10 by the second hour. Mortara took over with four hours remaining, switching to medium compound tyres that improved stability and pace. The #63 battled inside the top 10, reaching as high as fifth due to penalties for other cars.
In the LMGT3 class, Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey, and Michelle Gatting of the #85 Iron Dames crew were denied a podium finish despite securing their second pole position of the year. A burst water pipe during their fourth pit-stop while running second led to their eventual retirement. Meanwhile, Matteo Cressoni, Franck Perera, and Claudio Schiavoni in the sister #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 finished 14th after receiving a drive-through penalty.
Bovy started from pole in the #85 Iron Dames Huracán and maintained a lead over the chasing #92 Porsche. However, tyre degradation saw her drop to second place before Frey took over. Frey kept them in contention for a podium spot but Gatting's stint was cut short by a burst water pipe during a pit-stop.
Free Practice and Qualifying – LMGT3
The Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2s showed promise despite a pre-event Balance of Performance weight increase. The #60 set fourth best time in FP1 and second quickest in FP2 while the #85 was third in FP3. Bovy secured her second pole position of the year with a time of 1m34.413 during qualifying.
The race for LMGT3 saw Schiavoni drop a lap early on before Cressoni received a drive-through penalty for contact with another car. Despite these challenges, they managed to finish 14th.
Quotes
Mirko Bortolotti expressed his disappointment: "I think it was quite a disappointing weekend to be honest, I’m not really happy with how things went, and the pace wasn’t there as we saw in qualifying. This is the shortest track on the calendar so it is clear that the gaps are closer but clearly, we are not competitive."
Daniil Kvyat found some positives: "It was a positive weekend in parts for us, generally speaking. We put ourselves in a strong position early on and we were really in the fight for a top 10 until we got the puncture which unfortunately put us out of contention in the end."
Edoardo Mortara highlighted tyre management issues: "A difficult weekend for us this weekend, the atmosphere was amazing, and the track was actually quite nice, but it was definitely very challenging in the race because we had to manage the tyre degradation a lot."
Bortolotti took over for the final two hours but struggled with tyre drop-off before suffering a puncture that forced an additional pit-stop. Despite this setback, he brought home the car in 17th place after benefiting from another car's crash.
The team remains hopeful for better results at future races like COTA as they continue working together to find performance improvements.
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