The 2024 6 Hours of Imola delivered great action and a tight challenge today, as the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari welcomed the FIA World Endurance Championship for its first outing of the year on European soil after the Qatar opener.
Making its second WEC start with the Lamborghini SC63 racecar, Lamborghini Iron Lynx showed progress and an encouraging pace around their home circuit despite battling a few minor issues through practice and qualifying. For the team, it was the third full race completed with no major technical issues or procedural woes.
After qualifying in P16, Mirko Bortolotti made an amazing start and quickly went up to P11, masterfully avoiding an early melee and staying in contention for points. Edoardo Mortara continued the same smooth run, but the rain eventually started to fall towards the end of his stint. Then, right after Daniil Kvyat jumped into the cockpit, the rainfall intensified, and the former F1 racer was forced to deal with treacherous conditions as the team worked to find the best strategy.
The Lamborghini Iron Lynx crew had to navigate through challenging variables, trying to adapt as quickly as possible while learning to manage the new car in tricky conditions. Despite the weather concerns, Kvyat held a strong pace and eventually crossed the finish line in P12, not far from the points zone. The #63 car completed the race with no issues in a clean overall performance.
The next round of the season will be the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, where the team’s line-up will welcome IMSA regular Andrea Caldarelli due to clashing commitments for Mortara.
Emmanuel Esnault, Racing Director: “The race was full of promise, and we are globally satisfied with how the weekend progressed. We kept chipping away and improving, quickly working out the teething issues we found, and performing without a hitch on race day despite difficult environmental situations, attrition, and the weather throwing a few more challenges in the mix. We are determined to continue this progress at Spa-Francorchamps and on the way to Le Mans. The coming weeks will be important and busy for all of us with the preparation work for Le Mans and some testing, but we will give our best and keep working as hard as possible.”
Mirko Bortolotti: “It has been a very special race. It’s always great to race in Imola as it’s the home race for Lamborghini and myself. First of all, it has been amazing to see all the fans and enjoy the atmosphere here. I’m really happy with the race, I had a great start from P16, and after a few laps, I managed to get up to P11. It was a positive first stint, and I enjoyed my double stint. We are really happy to bring the car home, once again, proving good reliability. We know where we have to work on, but it has been a solid race for the whole team, and it’s something we can build on.”
Edoardo Mortara: “I think this has been a really positive weekend for us. Considering that it’s only the second race weekend in this championship for Lamborghini and Iron Lynx, we completed the full distance without technical issues, and we showed that we were more competitive than in Qatar, so things are going in the right direction. Obviously, we would like to have more, because we are competitors, but we also know that we are facing some very strong contenders, and we know the areas we need to work on to make even more improvements.”
Daniil Kvyat: “The race was very good for all of us. There are still improvements to make and things to work on, but the direction we have taken is good, we are improving more and more. There were some challenges, but the team did a great job, the pitstops were fast. We were on the same strategy as the other competitors, and the gap was not huge. There are a lot of positives to take from today, and we keep working.”