Lamborghini Iron Lynx will embark on the most significant race in its history this weekend as it prepares to fight for outright honours at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with a pair of Lamborghini SC63 LMDh prototypes in round four of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Edoardo Mortara returns to the #63 full-season FIA WEC entry, alongside Mirko Bortolotti and Daniil Kvyat, while Andrea Caldarelli will line up with regular IMSA team-mates Romain Grosjean and Matteo Cairoli in the #19 car, which will make its FIA WEC debut in France.
Lamborghini will also compete for LMGT3 spoils with two Huracán GT3 EVO2s. After securing their maiden FIA WEC podium at Spa-Francorchamps, Franck Perera, Claudio Schiavoni and Matteo Cressoni will again team up in the #60 car while Michelle Gatting, Sarah Bovy and Rahel Frey continue in the #85 Iron Dames machine. The Dames were forced into a late alteration to their entry following the unfortunate rib injury to Doriane Pin, who had been originally scheduled to drive.
Preparations for the 24 Hours are already well underway, with the traditional public scrutineering taking place on Friday in the city center of Le Mans before the official Test Day over the weekend of 8-9 June. Test Day gave the team its first opportunity to turn laps on the iconic 13.626km Circuit de la Sarthe and their eye in before official timed practice begins in earnest on Wednesday 12th June.
Across the pair of three-hour sessions, the #63 ended up as the seventh-fastest car out of 23 Hypercar entry, while the #19 completed its first day in the FIA WEC in 18th.
The season so far
There have been mixed fortunes for the #63 in the FIA WEC season so far, with strong reliability taking the crew to a 13th place finish in the opening round of the year in Qatar. On home soil at Imola, Bortolotti, Mortara, and Kvyat profited from a noticeable performance improvement to take the car to a promising 12th amid changeable conditions. Unfortunately, the 6 Hours of Spa ended prematurely as a suspension failure delivered the first non-finish for the SC63.
For the #19, race running has been limited in 2024 to date, with just one event for the car coming in March for the 12 Hours of Sebring, the first outing on American soil for the SC63. Despite being ostensibly a test for the new car, the notoriously bumpy circuit provided enough data and learning throughout the weekend and a superb seventh-place finish delivered the first drivers’ championship points and demonstrated the mechanical integrity of the SC63 which suffered only a minor issue with a loose door.
The weekend at a glance
Wednesday 12th June
Free Practice 1 (14:00-17:00)
Qualifying – Hypercar and LMGT3 (19:00-20:00)
Free Practice 2 (22:00-00:00)
Thursday 13th June
Free Practice 3 (15:00-18:00)
Hyperpole (20:00-20:30)
Free Practice 4 (22:00-23:00)
Friday 14th June
Traditional Drivers Parade in Le Mans city (16:00-19:00)
Saturday 15th June
Warm-up (12:00-12:15)
Official Start Procedure for the 24 Hours of Le Mans (15:30-15:50)
Race start (16:00)
All times CET
