WEC | Lamborghini, gearbox KO: “But finally good qualifying”

Lamborghini experienced another weekend of ups and downs at Fuji, with some positives mixed in with some issues to review and resolve ahead of the final race of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season in Bahrain in November.

At the 6h held in Japan, the objectives of Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara, and of the entire team from Sant’Agata Bolognese with the Iron Lynx team, were the same as in past races: to try to gather information, data and try to make further progress.

In free practice, as always, we focused on the set-up, also trying the hard tyres to cope with the high temperatures and struggling a bit to find the best balance, but also finding good performances in the slow section of the third sector.

The smile finally came in Qualifying, when Kvyat managed to take the SC63 to the Hyperpole heat for the very first time, finishing it with a ninth place on the grid, +0″681 from the top.

“I’m satisfied, it’s nice to enter Hyperpole for the first time. We managed to complete the job by putting our thoughts in order and understanding which direction to take the car. It was a bit of a surprise, but it seems that the spring has finally been clicked”, commented the Russian.

“There’s still a lot of work to do, but it was nice. Our car has a very tight window, but it was good here and I managed to put together good laps in both sessions. I hope this is a motivation for everyone, and a good prospect for the future of this program.”

The gap turned out to be the lowest since the beginning of the season and things were also going rather well in the race, with Mortara starting off strong, trying to stay in the middle group, after a contact at the start had made him slip back.

The Swiss suffered excessive degradation in the first stint, then managed the situation better in the second before handing over to Kvyat, serving a 10″ penalty for an infringement committed at the first stop.

Times began to drop and Daniil’s average pace was around +0.8″ compared to that of the winning #6 Porsche, arriving to within 0.6″ of the best time of the race and slowly climbing back up the slope until the transmission gave out, forcing the Bull team to surrender 120′ from the checkered flag, with many regrets.

“I think there were a lot of encouraging signs this weekend and of course the highlight of the whole weekend was qualifying, which really gave us a confidence boost; we managed to get the car in a position to perform at its best and now it will be important to maintain this consistency,” adds Kvyat.

“Up until we had the problem, the pace was that of the Top 10. Then we had the transmission problem and we had to retire: a real shame, but that’s also what racing is all about.”

#63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63: Mirko Bortolotti, Edoardo Mortara, Daniil Kvyat

Photo credit: JEP / Motorsport Images

Mortara half satisfied: “It was a mix of ups and downs. In qualifying Daniil gave us a good moment, but unfortunately then came a retirement; we will try to understand the problem well. Apart from that, on the track we fought with the others and tried to make the best of an alternative strategy”.

“Actually everything worked well for most of the race and it would have been interesting to see how we could have finished, as we managed to get into the middle of the pack. Hopefully in the future we can improve even more and get back to fighting for points like we did in Le Mans. We still have an opportunity in Bahrain and, if we can make another step forward, we will come back stronger.”

Bortolotti was disappointed: “Unfortunately we had to retire in the race and for me this was a weekend with very few riding sessions as I did zero laps on Saturday and zero laps on Sunday too. But the pace of the long run on Friday seemed very strong. It’s a shame because I think there was the potential to try to fight for the points zone. We will try to solve the problem and come back stronger”.

Emmanuel Esnault, Race Operations Director for Iron Lynx, said: “It’s a great feeling to know that the hard work we’ve put in since the beginning of the year is gradually paying off. Getting into the Hyperpole was definitely a great result, and the pace in the race has also been increasingly consistent, despite Fuji not being an easy track to interpret, especially if you’re racing there for the first time.”

“While the team’s strategy aligned with us and we were ultimately in a good position, we know where we need to improve in terms of execution. We need to continue to push forward with development, looking to the near future and beyond.”