Iron Dames delivered a strong performance in the 6 Hours of Fuji, with Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey, and Michelle Gatting overcoming a safety car that denied them a run for the podium to still secure a valuable fifth-place finish and their third top-five result of the WEC season.
Iron Dames claimed a positive top five finish at the 6H of Fuji, seventh and penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, having battled for podium positions throughout the event.
Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting bounced back strongly after a few challenging rounds which saw the all-female team being involved in contacts or technical issues that have hampered their campaigns in ELMS and WEC.
Only two weeks after the Lone Star Le Mans event at COTA, however, the trio produced a solid performance that saw the pink Lamborghini Huracan leading mid-way through the race. Despite a late Virtual Safety Cars handing a free pit stop to their class rivals and thus denying the team realistic chances of a podium, strong runs from each driver still resulted in their third top five finish of the WEC season.
The 6 Hours of Fuji therefore represented a positive step for the drivers of the #85 Lamborghini, who battled through misfortunes in the safety car timings still bringing home a valuable result, on a track where they often showed great pace in the past - and in a country that has always shown great appreciation for the Iron Dames project.
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At the beginning of the race weekend, Iron Dames had a solid progression through practice sessions, with all three drivers showing speed at the 4.563 km circuit in the build-up to qualifying; an eleventh place in Saturday morning FP3 saw the trio continuing their work on race pace with great consistency on long runs.
As the bronze-rated driver, Sarah Bovy took on driving duties for qualifying in a warm Fuji, with 12 minutes available to secure a spot in the Hyperpole session. Her first timed lap of 1:43.767 put her third in the LMGT3 class, but she soon improved to a 1:41.189, propelling Iron Dames to the top of the leaderboard, before TF Sport's Tom Van Rompuy edged them out by 0.079 seconds.
Bovy pitted with a safe enough time to remain in the top ten, and despite François Heriau’s Vista AF Corse Ferrari going under the 1:41 barrier with three minutes to go, Bovy's time was enough to secure access to the second qualifying session.
In Hyperpole, Ian James set the early pace for Heart of Racing’s Aston Martin, with Bovy in fourth with six minutes remaining. As times dropped, the two United Autosport McLarens moved ahead before Van Rompuy posted a 1:40.975 to claim provisional pole. Bovy had strong sectors one and two but lost seven-tenths in the final sector, dropping to eighth.
A late improvement brought her to a 1:41.265, placing the #85 Lamborghini fourth and securing a second-row start for Sunday’s 6H of Fuji. Pole in LMGT3 went to the #55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari, followed by the #81 TF Sport Corvette and the #95 United Autosport McLaren.
Sarah Bovy took the start of the 6-hour race and, despite being boxed in at turn 1, she managed to retain her position in the LMGT3 class throughout the first lap, with Tom Van Rompuy's TF Sport Corvette leading the pack. The green flag action, however, lasted only one lap before a multi-car accident in Hypercar brought out the safety car.
The first 15 minutes of the race were therefore spent behind the pace car, and once the green flag waved again, Bovy closely followed the leading trio - before the two United Autosport McLarens collided and Josh Caygill spun at turn 1, promoting Bovy to third.
The Iron Dames' pace was competitive in the opening laps, faster than the two cars ahead, but soon encountered hypercar traffic and Bovy survived side contact from the #36 Alpine. While maintaining a safe margin over the fourth-placed Heart of Racing Aston Martin driven by Ian James, Bovy kept the gap to James Cottingham and Tom Van Rompuy ahead to less than a second in a tightly contested LMGT3 top three at the 30-minute mark. The pink Lamborghini increased the pressure on Cottingham, allowing Van Rompuy to stretch his lead.
Bovy made her move on lap 25 into turn 1, but Cottingham held her off. However, Sarah kept up the pressure and tried again a few laps later, ultimately snatching second on lap 30. Once ahead, Sarah pulled away and soon took the lead as the #81 TF Sport Corvette pitted for fuel at the one-hour mark.
Most of the LMGT3 cars pitted one lap later, but Bovy stretched her stint slightly longer, with the Iron Dames' first pit stop on lap 35. The Belgian driver stayed behind the wheel for a double stint. Rejoining in second place after the first pit cycle, Bovy had to fend off Nicolas Costa in the #59 United Autosport McLaren, which opted for its Silver-rated driver. When a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed with 4 hours and 30 minutes to go, most of the field pitted under caution before the full Safety Car was deployed due to an advertising board hanging over the track.
With the field bunched up, the race went green again with 4 hours and 17 minutes to go. Nicolas Costa passed Bovy on the restart, then moved to the lead. Bovy came under pressure from the #46 Team WRT BMW before pitting for a driver change to Rahel Frey at the two-hour mark, ending the bronze driver stint.
Rejoining in tenth, Frey found herself battling hard with Daniel Mancinelli and Alessio Rovera. Despite Mancinelli setting purple sector times for Heart of Racing, Rahel used her experience to keep him behind. She climbed back to third by lap 76 as more teams completed their driver changes.
Frey successfully held off both Mancinelli and Rovera, continuing to put in strong laps in the 1:42 range and maintaining a one-second margin over the two Italian drivers. When Costa and Flohr pitted for their stops, Frey regained second place, six seconds behind Gregoire Saucy, who had taken over the #59 United Autosport McLaren.
Frey, consistently gaining on Saucy, halved the gap to the leader as the race approached its midpoint. In just a few laps, Frey caught Saucy, set a purple sector, and overtook the McLaren for the lead on lap 91. She pitted for the Iron Dames' third stop of the day with three hours remaining, staying in the car for a second stint.
By lap 100, Frey was one of the fastest drivers on track, making up ground on the cars ahead. From ninth, she cycled back into second place, consistently lapping in the 1:42 range.
Frey soon found herself back in the lead, with TF Sport's Rui Andrade as her closest pursuer, 10 seconds behind. A Full Course Yellow (FCY) with 2 hours and 30 minutes to go for debris on track luckily didn’t turn into a full Safety Car.
At the green flag, Andrade had gained a few seconds, but Rahel kept the lead and survived another FCY for debris soon after. A brilliant Rahel Frey completed her double stint and pitted from the lead with two hours to go, handing the #85 Lamborghini Huracán over to Michelle Gatting, who rejoined in ninth place in class.
With 1 hour and 46 minutes to go, the #63 Lamborghini Hypercar stopped on track, triggering a VSC that as per format became a full Safety Car. Michelle Gatting had already climbed to fourth place as more teams were preparing to pit. She took the opportunity to refuel, rejoining in fifth place in class - however the neutralization also gave all their rivals a free pit stop, erasing Iron Dames' strategy advantage.
At the restart, Gatting lost a position to Sean Gelael's BMW and dropped to sixth, but once in her rhythm, Michelle put in fast laps and matched the pace of most of the Gold-rated drivers. Despite having Schmid, Riberas, and Mann close behind, she picked up her pace and caught Sean Gelael again.
Michelle was back in attack mode: after one strong defense from the Indonesian, Gatting completed a spectacular pass on lap 162, switching back and forth before taking the inside line at turn 1 to demote Gelael to sixth. The Danish ace then pitted with 50 minutes to go for the final stop.
On fresh tyres, Michelle clocked the car's fastest lap with a 1:41.809, then improved to 1:41.705 as other teams made their final pit stops. She climbed back to fourth and was faster than Van Der Linde and Rovera behind, maintaining a 4-second margin.
However, Charlie Eastwood progressively closed the gap and passed Gatting for fourth in the final minutes. Despite this, Gatting had enough pace to stay comfortably ahead of both Rovera and Saucy; she continued to be one of the fastest drivers in class until the end, crossing the finish line in fifth place and securing Iron Dames' third top-five finish of the season after a dramatic 6H of Fuji.
"We had a lot of action today", Rahel Frey explained. "We saw a lot of overtaking, a lot of incidents, it was super interesting to drive and I hope also to watch."
"For us, we had a steady race, we finished in the top five which is important for us to collect points and I'm very happy. We all delivered a very good performance, Sarah, Michelle myself and the team. The pit stops were all very reliable. So all in all in terms of the performance we can be happy."
After another strong qualifying, Sarah Bovy had a solid first part of the race, battling at the front and managing well the race after the safety car. A remarkable double stint for Frey brought Iron Dames back in contention for a podium and she kept the lead in one of her strongest drives of the season to date. Gatting fought hard and left nothing on the table, as she maximised the Lamborghini speed, lacking on the long Fuji straight compared to other cars.
With fifth at Fuji Speedway, Iron Dames moved up to seventh in the FIA WEC LMGT3 standings, with one round to go. Bovy, Gatting and Frey will now head to Indianapolis for the fourth round of the IMSA Endurance Cup, before returning to Europe for the Mugello round of the European Le Mans Series.
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