The hot 2023 summer keeps bringing amazing results to Matteo Cairoli: the driver from Como, busy with the second round of the European Le Mans Series at the Paul Ricard circuit, has brought home an amazing second place finish at the 4 Hours of Le Castellet in the LM GTE class. The Italian, at the wheel of the Porsche 911 RSR of Iron Lynx together with his teammates Matteo Cressoni and Claudio Schiavoni, showed his full potential in a pretty hectic and chaotic race that saw the Italian team bring home the first podium of the season.
After showing a great pace during the free practice sessions, the Iron Lynx’s car driven by Schiavoni ended the qualifying round only 12° in its class; the 12th position was kept in the first half of the race, with Schiavoni who was running at a good pace without making any mistakes. A perfectly timed strategy was what allowed the team to take advantage of the Safety car, putting the car in the battle for the podium. After a pretty good stint from Cressoni, Cairoli jumped at the wheel and, with a really great pace, started to gain the positions that separated him from the Proton Competition Porsche #77 at the lead of the race. The driver from Como kept catching up lap after lap but unfortunately he wasn’t able to overtake his rival before crossing the finish line; however, the driver born in 1996 was able to finish second in the LM GTE class, only 11.4 seconds behind the winners. It was an amazing result that allowed the Italian team to lead the championship after the first two rounds with 30 points, three more than their contenders.
For its next round, the European Le Mans Series will race for the first time at Motorland Aragón, the Spanish track that will host the 4 Hours of Aragón on August 25 and 26.
Matteo Cairoli
“Jumping on the podium for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet was really special. The weekend wasn’t easy, the qualifying round didn’t go as we hoped and starting from the back of the field is never easy; my teammates did an amazing job and I have to give my best compliments to both Claudio and Matteo for their performances. We found ourselves fighting for a podium finish and I knew I had a pretty good pace, so I did everything I could to gain time and battle for the win. However, there wasn’t enough time to do so. I’m still really happy about our performance and I want to thank Iron Lynx for giving us such a fast car; the season started well, we’re leading the championship and we hope to do so even after the next round in Aragón.”
