ELMS: Iron Dames complete the season with exceptional performance at Portimao

After Sarah Bovy secured her fourth pole position of the season by a margin of almost a second, Iron Dames closed out their European Le Mans Series campaign with a dominant performance at Portimão, narrowly missing the win after a strategic move on the final lap allowed their sister team to win and secure the title.

Photo credits: Iron Dames

Iron Dames closed out their season in the European Le Mans Series with a thrilling race which saw the trio dominate at Portimao. After Sarah Bovy secured her fourth pole position of the season, by a margin of almost a second, the Belgian racer drove a superb opening stint in which she controlled the pace at the head of the GT3 class field.

Rahel Frey drove an excellent middle portion of the race, before Michelle Gatting kept the team in unlikely championship contention until the final lap with a masterful defensive drive. With Iron Dames set to fall two points short of the overall crown, Gatting sacrificed a certain victory to allow the sister Iron Lynx machine to take the win and secure the championship in a drama-filled season finale.

The Iron Dames trio of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey arrived at Portimao targeting a strong end to their 2024 campaign. Although the trio entered the season finale sitting seventh in the LMGT3 standings, they still remained in mathematical contention of claiming the title, underlining the highly-competitive nature of the European Le Mans Series.

It has been an unfortunate campaign for the talented crew who have adapted superbly to their Porsche 911 GT3, displaying excellent speed across the season. Bovy had claimed three pole positions heading into Portimao and was looking to secure a fourth bonus point of the season. Meanwhile, both Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey have shown frontrunning pace and were targeting a second podium finish of their European Le Mans Series campaign.

The event got underway on Wednesday with a pair of collective tests, with the first held in wet conditions. Although unrepresentative for the remainder of the weekend, it was a strong start for the Iron Dames trio who set the sixth fastest time. In a dry second session, the team improved to a set a time quick enough for fifth fastest, while Gatting’s best first sector was the quickest overall in the LMGT3 class.

Two further sessions took place on Thursday with the first of which being free practice one. Completing 43 laps, the team improved once again to end the session third in LMGT3 and less than a quarter of a second away from the quickest time set by Daniel Serra. In the bronze test session on Thursday afternoon, Bovy topped the times while setting the quickest sector one and two among the LMGT3 field.

Friday’s running began with free practice two in which the trio of drivers all completed extensive running. Frey’s fastest time saw Iron Dames end the session in seventh position within LMGT3, before Bovy took centre-stage for the important qualifying session.

Sarah got behind the wheel for the final European Le Mans Series qualifying session of the year and was immediately on the pace. Setting the overall best time in each of the three sectors, Bovy’s advantage at the halfway stage of qualifying stood at over a second.

Although she was unable to improve on her second run, Bovy claimed her fourth pole position of the season with a gap of over nine tenths of a second ahead of her nearest rival.

Following her impressive effort in qualifying, Bovy lined up on pole position ahead of the four-hour race.

Photo credits: Iron Dames

The Belgian racer made a clean start at the head of the field and remained in the lead of the LMGT3 class after lap one, while opening out a margin of one second over Martin Berry.

As the drivers began lap two, the race entered a virtual safety car period with the car of Charles-Henri Samani requiring recovery. This neutralisation turned into a safety car interruption with the restart coming on lap five.

A number of prototypes had taken this opportunity to make an early pitstop and the faster cars restarted behind the majority of the LMGT3 machines. Nevertheless, Bovy pulled clear by two seconds and opened out a margin before the prototypes moved ahead.

On lap eight, Sarah set the fastest lap of the race in the LMGT3 class with her lead quickly approaching ten seconds. The first full course yellow period of the race then halted her progress, with marshals removing debris from the circuit.

As the drivers got back up to full speed, Bovy’s lead had been cut by new second place driver Johnny Laursen with the Danish racer gaining some time in the full course yellow cycle. The Iron Dames driver was now dealing with traffic and Laursen was able to close in further, before another full course yellow period, again for debris, briefly neutralised the race. On this occasion, Bovy was able to benefit from the full course yellow cycle and a number of quick laps saw the lead margin increase to ten seconds once again.

As the race approached the hour mark, Bovy’s pace was exceptional and her gap over Laursen now exceeded twenty seconds. The Belgian driver was consistent running up to three seconds faster than those in the LMGT3 midfield as her tyre management skills were on full display.

On lap 32, Bovy entered the pits for a scheduled stop and while stationary, two separate incidents caused yellow flags to be displayed with a virtual safety car period commencing on Sarah’s out lap.

This interruption led to the second safety car intervention of the race with Bovy sitting in second position. Iron Dames had lost the lead after Duncan Cameron remained on track and was able to complete his stop a lap later, while Bovy was running at a reduced pace. Following the wave around procedure, eight cars remained on the lead lap in the LMGT3 class with Cameron leading Bovy.

Bovy made a clean restart and although she initially dealt with traffic from the prototype classes, a personal best time on lap 42 saw the gap to Cameron reduce to less than half a second. Although she was unable to immediately complete a move, she continued to apply pressure to the Spirit of Race machine.

Bovy then negotiated a spinning Francois Heriau on the exit of turn one, before closing in once again on Cameron. On lap 47, Sarah made a clean pass to reclaim the lead of the LMGT3 class with a number of her rivals now pitting as the minimum time for a bronze rated driver had now elapsed.

However, Bovy, along with Laursen and Iron Lynx driver Hiroshi Hamaguchi, remained on track to execute an alternate strategy. Bovy rose to the challenge of completing a second full stint and set a series of fast and consistent lap times to extend her margin over her two fellow bronze rated drivers. Pitting with a lead of around twenty seconds, Bovy brought the car to the attention of her crew after an exceptional stint of over two hours to hand over to Swiss racer Rahel Frey.

Photo credits: FocusPackMedia / Marcel Wulf

Frey rejoined the race in sixth position due to the alternate strategy chosen by the Iron Dames team. Many of their rivals had pitted at the earliest possible opportunity to remove their bronze rated driver and without another intervention, these teams would be required to make an extra fuel stop. Frey was quickly back inside the top-5 after a drive through penalty for the Kessel Racing machine of Esteban Masson dropped the Ferrari 296 GT3 down to seventh position.

Frey’s pace in the early stages of her stint was strong as she held off teammate Matteo Cressoni, while Masson was applying pressure to the Italian racer. Due to the alternate strategy chosen by the team, Rahel’s main aim was to maximise lap time while losing as little time as possible in the prototype traffic. She was able to successful keep both Cressoni and Masson behind her prior to their pitstops, with the Iron Dames racer assuming the LMGT3 lead on lap 80.

Into the closing stages of her stint, Frey maintained a consistent pace before a virtual safety car period was called for after the cars of Antoine Doquin and Oliver Jarvis required recovering. Rahel was able to make her scheduled pitstop under this neutralisation period with Michelle Gatting taking over the car for the final hour. Following an excellent stop from the team, Gatting held the lead as the safety car was deployed with Iron Lynx driver Andrea Caldarelli in second position.

As the drivers ran behind the safety car, the Iron Dames trio were in position to claim the championship, a highly unlikely situation at the beginning of the weekend. Following a series of issues for the Racing Spirit of Le Mans Aston Martin Vantage GT3, Valentin Hasse Clot was trapped a lap down with little chance of regaining the lost time.

Kessel Racing were also contenders, however the drive through penalty issued to Masson had left Daniel Serra with considerable work to do from eighth position and the Brazilian would need to make at least two on-track passes to move back into contention.

Therefore, Gatting knew that victory at Portimao would give the team the best chance to secure the title. Keeping Caldarelli behind was also crucial, since a change at the head of the LMGT3 field would see Caldarelli secure the championship if Serra finished fifth or lower. The race resumed with 45-minutes remaining and Gatting drove superbly to keep the Italian at bay despite his consistent pressure.

With 38 minutes left in the season finale, the race was brought under full course yellow conditions as the marshals removed further debris from the track. A five-minute neutralisation period was quickly ended and Gatting was on her toes at the restart, successfully keeping Caldarelli at bay.

The racing at the head of the LMGT3 field was intense and Serra was also making moves, overtaking both Lorcan Hanafin and Riccardo Pera to move into sixth. At this stage, Kessel Racing would claim the title on countback with the extraordinary situation of their current sixth-place result being the deciding factor with both crews provisionally sitting on two victories and no other result higher than sixth.

However, the top-6 cars were running nose-to-tail and with Pera and Hanafin also in contention, the championship battle remained wide open. With just 25 minutes remaining, another full course yellow period for debris increased the intensity further with Gatting’s defensive skills being tested to the limit. The Danish race was showing excellent composure at the head of the field in a drive reminiscent of her superb display at Imola earlier in the season.

Gatting continued to resist the pressure into the closing stages of the race and she knew that one mistake would rule the Iron Dames out of championship contention. It was a flawless drive right to the checkered flag when Gatting moved aside for Caldarelli to claim the race victory on the final corner of the final lap to enable the sister Iron Lynx car to secure the championship title in spectacular fashion.

Photo credits: FocusPackMedia / Jan Patrick Wagner

It was an excellent display of teamwork from both crews who battled fiercely on-track, before coming together to ensure the championship trophy went to the Italian crew.

With Kessel Racing finishing in fifth position after a late-race pass by Serra on David Perel, Iron Dames were unable to win the championship even by scoring maximum points.

However, a fourth-place finish was required from the Brazilian to deny Iron Lynx if they were to win the race, therefore the decision was made to swap the positions at the line. Despite not securing the race victory, it was a flawless drive from Bovy, Frey and Gatting who displayed both speed and consistency at Portimao.

Although the Iron Dames have endured their fair share of misfortune during the 2024 season, their performances in the European Le Mans Series brought them within a lap of claiming the inaugural LMGT3 championship title. All three drivers played a significant part in a thrilling season finale where the fighting spirit of the Iron Dames was shown in full effect.