ELMS: Chadwick leads at Imola before misfortune ends team's winning streak
- RACERS
- Jul 7
- 5 min read
Jamie Chadwick led laps before completing her double stint in second place overall at the ELMS 4 Hours of Imola, but later misfortunes ended in an accident for one of her teammates, dropping the #18 IDEC Sport just outside the points in P11.
Jamie Chadwick had a strong run at the 4 Hours of Imola, the third round of the European Le Mans Series, leading the race overall before settling into second place until handing over the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca. However, later misfortune for the championship-leading trio saw Chadwick, Juncadella and Jaubert drop out of the points-paying positions, finishing P11 after having won the opening two races of the ELMS season.
On her debut season in LMP2 prototypes, Jamie Chadwick has enjoyed a remarkable first half of the European Le Mans Series season, starting with a class win at Barcelona, followed by an overall victory at Le Castellet—making history as the first woman to win overall in the series.
She then made her debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month with a very encouraging performance, which was unfortunately cut short by a technical issue while in contention for a class podium. Chadwick returned to ELMS for the third round at Imola as the overall championship leader alongside teammates Dani Juncadella and Mathys Jaubert.
The trio were fast from the start, battling for pole position in Saturday’s rainy qualifying session. Chadwick, aided by strong strategy, led the race after the first hour and delivered a superb second stint before handing over the car in second place. Unfortunately, a later accident derailed the team’s podium chances.
Coming off the 24 Hours of Le Mans—where Chadwick and Jaubert were joined by André Lotterer—Daniel Juncadella returned to the LMP2 cockpit for the third ELMS round as the series reached its halfway mark.
The #18 IDEC Sport crew made good progress through practice, topping the second session with a 1:31.426 lap from Juncadella. Dark clouds then loomed just as qualifying began on Saturday afternoon. After the LMGT3 session, the track was declared wet—and shortly after, a massive rainstorm forced a two-hour delay.
Juncadella, who had been the fastest of the trio in practice, took on the LMP2 segment of qualifying. He immediately went quickest with purple sectors two and three, posting a 1:48.3 lap—then improved significantly, retaking the top spot with a 1:46.368. As times tumbled, the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca snatched provisional pole with five minutes remaining.
More improvements came in the final minutes until the CLX Motorsport Oreca crashed at Tosa, bringing out a red flag. When the session resumed with three minutes left, the drying track allowed for rapid improvements. Juncadella posted a new personal best of 1:41.065 but was unlucky as those finishing their laps later benefitted more from the track evolution. He ended P9 in class—still an encouraging result.
In dry but overcast conditions, the third round of the ELMS got underway at Imola on Sunday at noon. Jamie Chadwick started from P9 in the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca for the opening stint.
Chadwick had a clean start, slotting into P10 amid traffic but staying in touch with the LMP2 pack. Early chaos affected the LMP3 field, with a few cars spinning, but the LMP2 classes made it through cleanly.
Chadwick briefly lost P10 to Pipo Derani but soon set the fastest lap of the race with a 1:34.047, showing strong pace. Charles Sammani then went off in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari but continued, while the #23 McLaren of Michael Birch ended up in the gravel at Rivazza, triggering the first Full Course Yellow just 15 minutes into the race—in a hectic opening phase.
After the green flag returned, Chadwick dropped to P12 as ProAm contender Sérgio Sette Câmara got ahead. Around 30 minutes in, a major crash eliminated four cars: the GR Racing Ferrari of Wainwright collected the Iron Lynx Mercedes of Berry and the Kessel Racing Ferrari of Takeshi Kimura before being struck at speed by the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca of Paul Lafargue. The incident brought out the Safety Car and then a red flag to clear debris from Turn 2.
Chadwick was back up to P10 in class as the race was neutralized. It resumed behind the Safety Car with 3 hours and 16 minutes to go, and the overall race time was extended to account for the stoppage.
When the pits opened, Chadwick stayed in the car during a rapid pit stop and rejoined the race in the overall lead at the one-hour mark.
She held off pressure from Oliver Gray in the #48 Panis Racing Oreca; Gray used traffic to his advantage, making a move on Chadwick at Variante Alta as she was stuck behind the lapped #21 United Autosports car. Jamie held her own in second, with the #43 Inter Europol and #9 Iron Lynx entries closing in due to the traffic.
Jamie however settled into second and set consistent lap times in the 1:34s, building a small gap to Smiechowski and Ried. On lap 43, she pitted from P2 and handed the car to Dani Juncadella after a brilliantly solid double stint.
Rain began to affect parts of the circuit, prompting windscreen wipers. Juncadella rejoined in P12 after refueling but staying on old tyres. As other LMP2 entries completed their stops, he climbed back to P5, despite losing out to the #99 AO by TF and #3 DKR Engineering ProAm cars.
As rain intensified, Célia Martin spun into the gravel at the Villeneuve chicane from the LMGT3 lead in the Iron Dames Porsche, triggering another Full Course Yellow.
Despite being on older tyres, Juncadella maintained a solid pace; on the restart, he struggled to keep the car on track like many others in the worsening conditions. Stuck in traffic, he was forced off at Variante Alta but rejoined unscathed, still in P5.
Juncadella navigated the treacherous track well while others made errors, bringing the IDEC Sport Oreca up to P4. However, a costly mistake at Variante Alta saw him hit the barriers. Marshals helped extract the car, albeit now two laps down. After pitting for front-end repairs, they rejoined P12 in class.
With one hour to go, the Virtual Safety Car was deployed after the #68 M Racing LMP3 Ligier of Quentin Antonel scattered debris due to a tyre blowout. During the caution, Juncadella pitted and handed over to Mathys Jaubert for the final stint in P12.
The VSC turned into a full Safety Car, closing the field. Unfortunately, the #18 IDEC Sport also received a 10-second penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement.
Jaubert ran well in the 1:33s, passed a ProAm entry, and began chasing Pietro Fittipaldi in the #10 Vector Sport Oreca. The final 15 minutes were hectic, with multiple Full Course Yellows due to contacts in LMP2 and LMP3.
Jaubert gained ground and moved up to P11 when Fittipaldi spun into the gravel and lost a minute. Despite a solid final stint, the #18 crew couldn’t quite recover to the points and finished eleventh.
Jamie Chadwick had led the race and delivered an excellent drive solidly in second during her stint, once again showing her potential. However, the race didn’t yield the result they had hoped for.
Nonetheless, the team remains just one point behind the new championship leader, the #48 Panis Racing Oreca, which took victory in Imola.
With three rounds remaining in the 2025 European Le Mans Series, the next event will take place at Spa-Francorchamps on 23–24 August.
