IRON DAMES TAKES POLE POSITION ON EUROPEAN LE MANS SERIES RETURN

Iron Dame Sarah Bovy took pole position in the European Le Mans Series at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the season-opening race on the team’s return.

The iconic magenta colours appear in the series once again after taking a year out, and the team continued their form from the season-ending round in 2022 by taking to the top spot in qualifying.

Sarah took the wheel for the 15-minute session around the flowing circuit. The best times came towards the end of the session, and that is when Sarah put in her quickest lap in.

Her time of 1 minute 41.850 seconds in the Porsche 911 GT3 R featured a particularly strong final sector, which allowed her to take the top spot by 0.317s over the #63 Iron Lynx entry.

The times across the field didn’t improve right at the end of the session as the tyres began to struggle after many successive laps. This secured Sarah’s pole and a crucial point to begin the team’s campaign.

In the first session for the Iron Dames in the Michelin Le Mans Cup, Célia Martin put in a great effort to line up third on the grid in the GT3 category ahead of her Iron Dames and series debut, alongside Karen Gaillard in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo 2.

Sunday’s four-hour ELMS race begins at 11:30am CET, with the MLMC race on Saturday at 5:40pm CET.

I am very happy to start the ELMS season with the first pole position. Seeing so many smiles in the garage adds even more flavour to it. Tomorrow’s race won’t be easy, but Michelle and Rahel and I will try to get through it. The real challenge is to keep the position and we are ready to fight. Now we’ll be following the Michelin Le Mans Cup and supporting Celia and Karen as they make their debut as Iron Dames.

Sarah Bovy