Iron Dames conclude their 2025 season with P12 finish at 8H of Bahrain
- LIAM REDFORD
- 2 minutes ago
- 11 min read
Iron Dames produced a spirited comeback drive overcoming early race setbacks to conclude their 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season with a P12 result at the 8 Hours of Bahrain, where the trio of Célia Martin, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting utilised an alternative strategy to lead laps in the final event of the year after starting from the rear of the field.
Iron Dames produced a spirited comeback drive overcoming early race setbacks to conclude their 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season with a 12th place result at the 8 Hours of Bahrain. The trio of Célia Martin, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting utilised an alternative strategy to lead laps in the final event of the year after starting from the rear of the field.
Contact from a rival during the second hour of the race led to a puncture for Martin and from there, Iron Dames were forced to use their spirit and determination in a race which featured a significant amount of green flag running. Frey displayed excellent tyre management during the middle portion of the race to elevate the team inside the top-10, before an untimely safety car period in the final hour put pay to a points-scoring finish.
After narrowly missing out on victory in the European Le Mans Series Portimao finale, Iron Dames were looking to build upon their strong performance in the Algarve where they finished on the podium. Although they were still searching for the first trip to the rostrum in the 2025 WEC season, the second half of the season has seen the trio take steps forward in performance.
Following a best finish of eighth in the opening four rounds of the year; Martin, Frey and Gatting achieved a fourth-place result at Interlagos in July. This performance was their fourth straight points-scoring finish and gave the trio cause for optimism as the championship reached the latter stages. Strong performances at both Circuit of the Americas and Fuji Speedway went unrewarded following a late technical issue in Texas, while an unfortunate strategy shake-up resulted in a 13th place finish in Japan.
Nonetheless, Iron Dames arrived at a circuit which had been kind to them in the past following a historic victory at the Bahrain International Circuit in 2023. High-tyre degradation has traditionally favoured the all-female team who have looked to use consistency to their advantage across the eight-hour contest.
On-track action began on Thursday with two free practice sessions for the team to refine their car setup. In the first session, Iron Dames completed 37 laps on their way to the 15th fastest time in the LMGT3 class. Michelle Gatting was the quickest of the trio as she set a lap of a 2:05.192 which came on her fourth tour while the tyres were at their freshest.
Free practice two was held later on Thursday with the cooler conditions benefiting the Porsche 911 GT3 R machine. Following an excellent lap from Swiss racer Rahel Frey, Iron Dames ended the day in second position with a fastest time of a 2:03.021.
Friday morning’s action began with the third and final free practice session ahead of qualifying. It was a challenging session following an incident for Célia Martin as the French driver hit the barriers at the exit of turn two. Nonetheless, fantastic work from the team allowed Iron Dames to rejoin the session prior to its conclusion. Martin was still able to set her quickest time of the weekend to date with a 2:04.500 placing the team in 11th position within LMGT3.
Qualifying was held just prior to sunset on Friday afternoon with Martin behind the wheel for the 12-minute session. With high tyre degradation at Bahrain, each driver was looking to extract peak performance on their first flying laps. It was a tough session for Iron Dames with Martin setting the 18th quickest time on a 2:04.992 with the sister Porsche machine of Ryan Hardwick just one place ahead.
Following a difficult qualifying session, Martin commented “Qualifying has been a challenge for us all season, and that was especially true today. The temperatures were significantly lower during the session compared to free practice at midday – which probably explains why our Porsche felt so different. I’m curious to see what insights the data will reveal. Fortunately, we have the strong Manthey team behind us, and we’re determined to turn the tide in the race”.
The eight-hour season finale was held on Saturday with Martin lining up from 18th position in the LMGT3 class. As the lights went out, the French racer got a superb launch and immediately cleared the sister Manthey prepared machine of Hardwick. Martin then used this momentum to pass both Darren Leung and Anthony McIntosh during a productive first lap which saw Célia move inside the top-15.
Martin quickly closed onto the rear of the Vista AF Corse machine of Thomas Flohr, however contact was made as Celia looked to make a move. A spin for the Iron Dames driver saw her fall to the rear of the field, however there was no damage and Martin was soon back up to speed. On her first lap following the spin, Martin was the fastest driver in the middle sector in the LMGT3 class to underline her performance in race trim.
After catching the United Autosports machine of Leung once more, Martin completed the overtake on lap seven with a close battle emerging for the positions ahead. Martin was able to capitalise on these changes in position and by lap ten, she had re-passed Hardwick while also passing Leung’s teammate, James Cottingham. Now behind Flohr once more, Célia was looking to size-up the best place to make a move on the Ferrari 296 LMGT3.
The race then settled into a rhythm and although Martin was looking faster than Flohr as the stint progressed, overtaking proved challenging. Approaching the first scheduled pit stops of the race, Martin passed Flohr for 14th position and immediately built a gap to the Swiss racer. Martin was now consistently once of the fastest drivers on track as she made her first pit stop of the race on lap 24.
Martin remained in the car following an excellent recovery in her first stint and following a superb stop from the team, she moved up to ninth following the conclusion of the pit cycle. Although she quickly lost out to the Iron Lynx machine of Fran Rueda, the Spanish driver was silver-rated and with five teams opting to put their more experienced drivers in the car at this stage of the race, Martin remained in a strong position.
After being passed by Rueda, Martin encountered traffic and she then came under attack from a battling group of drivers. The TF Sport prepared Corvette Z06 LMGT3 machines of Tom Van Rompuy and Ben Keating were now directly behind with Australian Racer Yasser Shahin also looking to make progress. On lap 28, Shahin made contact with Martin while attempting an overtake and this dropped Celia back to 13th position.
As a legacy of this contact, Martin received a slow puncture and was forced to pit off sequence with Shahin later assessed a time penalty for causing a collision. With the team opting for a full tyre change at the pitstop, Rahel Frey also got behind the wheel with the silver rated driver now looking to gain back time. Frey was now on newer tyres compared to her rivals and this imbalance in tyre strategy would remain for the majority of the race as the Iron Dames trio looked to recover from this unfortunate setback.
After getting her tyres up to temperature, Frey quickly set a new personal best time of a 2:04.880 and on lap 36, she set the overall fastest time in the LMGT3 class through the middle sector. Frey was consistently the fastest driver on track during the second hour of the race as she looked to make her tyre advantage count. By lap 41, she had caught the rear of the field and Rahel quickly passed Cottingham and Leung.
Two laps later, Frey overtook Ahmad Al Harthy in his Team WRT prepared machine. The pit cycle then got underway for the majority of the LMGT3 field and therefore Rahel was able to cycle through to the overall class lead. Frey led for three laps after an exceptional stint where she drove smartly while making good progress on her new tyres.
With a little under two hours of the race complete, Frey pitted to hand over to Martin as she got back behind the wheel of the Porsche 911 GT3 R. While most of her rivals were now on new tyres of their own, it was a fuel-only stop for Iron Dames and therefore Martin was at a significant tyre disadvantage to the majority of her competitors.
Following the pit cycle, Martin was in seventh position before she came under attack from her rivals who were keen to make progress. After showing good performance during his second stint, Hardwick claimed seventh position from Martin on lap 56, before Célia was overtaking by McIntosh, Francois Heriau and Bernardo Sousa. Shahin then claimed 11th position on lap 62, before the Proton Competition machine of Gianmarco Levorato moved up to 12th on lap 68.
Martin then settled into 12th position following a pit stop made by Heriau and at this stage of her stint, Célia’s pace was competitive in spite of her tyre performance deficit. Martin was lapping consistency and managing traffic well as she looked to maximise her speed while on a different tyre strategy to those around her. Although Martin was unable to reclaim the lead during the next pit cycle, she did move Iron Dames into third position within the LMGT3 class as the team were looking to catch a fortunate break with a potential safety car.
On lap 79, Martin pitted and with a little over five hours of the season finale remained, she stayed in the car in order to complete her minimum drive-time. Célia rejoined the race in 13th position and now with a tyre offset to both Rui Andrade and Valentino Rossi behind, the French racer was able to hold her own against the two silver-graded drivers behind. Into the fourth hour of the race, Martin continued to remain ahead of Andrade and Rossi which was ensuring Iron Dames remained on the lead lap within the LMGT3 class in 13th position.
On lap 91, the race was neutralised for the first time after contact between the Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA machine of Jenson Button and the Vista AF Corse machine of Flohr saw the Swiss racer hit the barriers on the exit of turn three. This initially led to a virtual safety car period with Martin still in 13th position after Rossi had passed Célia as she slowed to the required speed.
Under the virtual safety car, Iron Dames pitted with Martin completing her stint and handing over to Michelle Gatting for her first contribution of the race. The race then entered a full safety car period with Gatting taking the pass around to ensure she remained on the lead lap in 11th position. Four hours and 18 minutes remained when the green flag was displayed and Gatting was soon on the move as she passed Stefano Gattuso for a spot inside the top-10.
As the race approached halfway, Gatting was frustrated behind the Iron Lynx machine of Andrew Gilbert who was defending his position stoutly. This brought Rossi back in contention and he passed Gatting for tenth, before Sean Gelael moved his United Autosports machine ahead shortly after. Nonetheless, Gatting continued to fight and this determination paid off after she overtook Gilbert on lap 110, before Gelael was assessed a drive-through penalty for a virtual safety car infringement.
With 3 hours, 34 minutes remaining, Gatting pitted from tenth position to hand over to Frey for her second stint of the race. Due to Iron Dames completing a driver change and fitting new tyres, Frey rejoined the race in 15th position and she was then engaged in a close battle with Kelvin van der Linde.
After a spell of sustained pressure, Frey moved ahead on lap 125 with van der Linde then forced to serve a drive-through penalty of his own after Rossi overtook Martin under yellow flag conditions.
Once ahead of the South African racer, Frey’s pace was excellent and she quickly caught the next group of LMGT3 cars. After passing Andrade and Dennis Olsen on successive laps, Rahel overtook Valentin Hasse Clot to move back inside the top-10. Frey was consistently one of the fastest drivers on track as the race entered its sixth hour and a points-scoring finish remained a realistic possibility.
As Frey’s second stint came to a conclusion with 2 hours, 41 minutes remaining, she stayed in the car with a fuel-only stop. Rejoining in tenth position, it was tough for Frey to maintain position with her tyre disadvantage leading to a performance deficit in this part of the race. Although she lost out to both Ben Tuck and Simon Mann, Frey’s speed was strong compared to those on a similar strategy with her tyre preservation ensuring the team remained in top-10 contention.
With two hours remaining, there was still two scheduled pit stops to be made with Frey bringing the car to the attention of her crew from tenth position on lap 168. Gatting got behind the wheel for the final stints and the Danish racer rejoined just behind the TF Sport machine of Charlie Eastwood. Gatting applied significant pressure to Eastwood during her out lap, almost drawing level with the Irish driver in the process.
Although she was unable to pass Eastwood, Gatting’s pace was strong and on lap 171, she set a new personal best time of a 2:04.612. After moving into 12th following a pit stop for Olsen, Gatting mounted another challenge on Eastwood and this time she overtook the Corvette Z06 for 11th spot. Gatting was soon into tenth after Eduardo Barichello made a scheduled stop and she now had a margin of over a second to Eastwood behind.
As the final hour got underway, Eastwood had closed back to within half a second on Gatting and he was able to reclaim the position on lap 191. Two laps later, both drivers pitted for the final stop and during the out lap, the race entered a second virtual safety car period after Dries Vanthoor had come to a halt out on circuit. This was an unfortunate break for Iron Dames with a number of their rivals now able to make a pit stop during the neutralisation period, while Gatting and Eastwood stopped during green flag conditions.
The virtual safety car was then converted into a full safety car period with 50 minutes of the eight-hour contest remained. Gatting was in 14th position and due to the unfortunate timing of the stoppage, Iron Dames were trapped a lap down once the wave by procedure was completed. The leading nine teams remained on the lead lap, while positions tenth through fifteenth were held by those one lap in arrears.
The race resumed with just over half an hour to go and Gatting immediately set a new fastest lap on the restart. The green flag racing was short-lived however, as a full course yellow period was then required for marshals to retrieve some debris from the racing line. Following the resumption of green flag conditions, Gatting improved again and with a quickest time of a 2:03.573, the team had broken the 2:04 barrier for the first time during the race.
On lap 204, Gatting overtook Lorcan Hanafin before setting her sights on Eastwood once more. Despite a spirited attack in the closing stages of the race, Gatting was unable to pass the TF Sport driver as she took the chequered flag in 12th position to complete a frustrating season finale in the Middle East.
Despite a great comeback drive from the Iron Dames trio, they narrowly missed out on adding to their championship points tally in Bahrain. After early-race contact relegated them to the rear of the field, smart strategy and mature driving saw the crew lead a number of laps before consistently contending for positions within the midfield. Without the late safety car interruption, a top-10 finish was on the cards for Martin, Frey and Gatting who showed good determination to fight back from adversity.
