DATE: 10 Jul 2024 | Sant’Agata Bolognese
#63 crew of Bortolotti, Mortara and Kvyat keen to build on historic Le Mans top 10 in Brazil
Sant’Agata Bolognese, 10 July 2024 – Lamborghini Iron Lynx aims to build on the momentum of its historic first-ever top 10 finish in the FIA World Endurance Championship this weekend as the second half of the season kicks off at the iconic Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo, Brazil.
Fresh off the back of a breakthrough result in the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month, the solo full-season #63 entry of Mirko Bortolotti, Edoardo Mortara and Daniil Kvyat returns to action with the Lamborghini SC63, for the first assault at world championship level in South America for Lamborghini Squadra Corse.
The trip to Brazil also marks the beginning of the second half of the FIA WEC season which, to date, has produced significant progress in Lamborghini Iron Lynx’s first campaign in the Hypercar class. Qualifying and race pace continue to improve, while the team benefited from running a second car in Le Mans, enabling it to learn more about the SC63 and experiment with setups and strategies.
In the LMGT3 class, capitalising on the strong performances already seen so far in 2024 will be the main focus, with the #85 Iron Dames crew of Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy and Michelle Gatting keen to unlock an elusive first podium of the season after two consecutive fifth place finishes at Spa and Le Mans. Meanwhile, in the #60, Franck Perera, Claudio Schiavoni and Matteo Cressoni are looking to bounce back following a frustrating Le Mans weekend.
Having already demonstrated strong reliability during the opening four rounds of the year in the FIA WEC, focus now turns to bridging the performance deficit to the front of the grid, most notably in qualifying trim. With the sister car in IMSA, outright one-lap pace vastly improved in the 6 Hours of the Glen in June, and a similar improvement is hoped for in the second half of the WEC season. Key to this will be a smooth run during free practice with time in the garage minimised.
Lack of testing and experience at the Interlagos circuit will be the main challenge in this task, but the team will be comforted in sorts due to the Brazilian venue being something of an anomaly to almost every other team; the track not having featured in the WEC since the inaugural season in 2012. Indeed, so new to the drivers is the Interlagos track, that only Kvyat has prior experience from his Formula One days.
Track Description
The 15-turn, 4.309km anti-clockwise circuit which sits between two lakes (hence the name Interlagos) offers a demanding mix of low-speed technical corners and high-speed sections which are sure to test all aspects of the Lamborghini SC63 across the weekend. Having last appeared on the WEC calendar 12 years ago, there are plenty of unknowns. Overtaking opportunities may present themselves at the first corner, the Senna “S” after the long main straight, while turn four (Descida do Lago) and turn 12 (Junção) could also lend themselves to passing chances. Traffic management in the infield section from turns 6-11 may also play a key role during the race.
Q&A with Daniil Kvyat (#63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx)
What are your feelings ahead of the trip to Interlagos? Pleased to be back in Brazil?
“I’m looking forward to the weekend at Interlagos; it’s a cool track, quite short and intense but I think it offers a good opportunity for racing with some cools corners like turn one with the banking, which is quite impressive, you don’t really get the impression on the TV. And then the high-speed corners like turns eight and nine are quite fun, so it is a pleasure to go there with the SC63, it’ll present a lot more of a challenge than I had in Formula One but I’m sure it’ll be an interesting weekend.
How do you rate the first half of the season in the FIA WEC?
“We’ve got a bit of momentum now within the team with the car. I think it was very important to get the first top 10 finish, especially at a place like Le Mans which was a great achievement for us. We’ve worked so hard together since the start of the season and we’re showing that we have a strong package which, of course, we are still working on developing and improving. We still need to understand what we need to work on in terms of updates because that’s where our performance breakthrough will be. I hope it’s going to make the car faster; so far, we have had some solid results and performances but in order to get up there with the top of the field, we need the upgrades and I think we are working well on developing these.”
What are the main objectives and challenges this weekend?
“Track time has been the real objective for us this season as we don’t get much of it and we are only one car, so we have to use this time to work on the right setup for the weekend. As it’s our first time at Interlagos, we don’t have any base setup to use, but it’s the same for almost everyone else. The challenge for us has been that we don’t have a great deal of data versus the competition, but we’ll use the practices to make small setup tweaks over the weekend before qualifying and the race.”
The weekend at a glance
Friday 12th July
Free Practice 1 (10:45-12:15)
Free Practice 2 (15:15-16:45)
Saturday 13th July
Free Practice 3 (10:30-11:30)
Qualifying – LMGT3 (14:30-14:42)
Hyperpole – LMGT3 (14:50-15:00)
Qualifying – Hypercar (15:10-15:22)
Hyperpole – Hypercar (15:30-15:40)
Sunday 14th July
Race (11:30-17:30)
All times Brasilia Standard Time (CET-5)
