Jamie Chadwick makes ELMS history again, wins overall at Le Castellet
- RACERS
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
"We've just been trying to learn as much as we can, no mistakes, and that's just paid off" – Jamie Chadwick made history as the first woman to win overall in the European Le Mans Series, helping IDEC Sport to back-to-back victories in a chaotic, rain-affected 4 Hours of Le Castellet.
Two rounds into the 2025 European Le Mans Series season, and women in motorsport continued to make groundbreaking achievements.
After a double class win at Barcelona — where Jamie Chadwick took LMP2 victory and the Iron Dames secured a win in LMGT3 — Chadwick took another historic step at Paul Ricard by claiming her first overall win. The British racer thus became the first woman in the history of the series to win outright, on another remarkable day for the women of the grid, as Lilou Wadoux also claimed victory in LMGT3.
Chadwick, who has broken records at every stage of her career, has long been a trailblazer for women in the sport — from becoming the youngest-ever British GT champion in 2015, to her triple crown in W Series, to her maiden victory in IndyNXT as she climbed the single-seater ladder. Making a spectacular debut in prototypes in the 2025 European Le Mans Series, Chadwick has been on an upward trajectory.
As part of the Genesis Magma project, Chadwick joined the lineup of the #18 LMP2 Oreca operated by IDEC Sport, sharing the car with platinum-rated Daniel Juncadella and silver-rated Mathys Jaubert. The trio soon proved to be the team to beat in the LMP2 class.
Despite narrowly missing out on the overall win by a couple of laps in Barcelona, Chadwick, Juncadella, and Jaubert executed a flawless strategy at Le Castellet and capitalized on their pace, once again standing on the top step of the podium.
In the South of France, the team made good progress from practice, showing strong potential. The #18 Oreca was fourth fastest overall with a best lap of 1:50.188, set by Jaubert. Chadwick found a tenth between sessions and was the second-fastest driver within her team in FP1.
Mathys Jaubert was again behind the wheel for qualifying in the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca, aiming to improve on his fifth place from Barcelona. He provisionally went to the top of the times early on and, as the session progressed and lap times tumbled, he posted a 1:49.600 to return to the top three with five minutes remaining.
The only silver-rated driver in the LMP2 Pro class, Jaubert delivered another standout performance: the 20 year old went second-fastest with a 1:49.206, setting the fastest times in sectors 1 and 2 — just 0.032 seconds shy of Nick Yelloly’s provisional pole. Matteo Cairoli later lowered the benchmark with a 1:49.000 in the final minute. Jaubert went for another push lap at the end but couldn’t improve further; his 1:49.206 stood as the third-fastest overall. In an impressive late effort, from both Nick Yelloly and Charles Milesi managed to lock out the front row, meaning the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca would start from fourth in Sunday's 4 Hours of Le Castellet.
Rain had fallen earlier on Sunday morning, leaving the track still wet at race start. With some drops still falling as cars lined up on the grid, tyre choices varied — most opting for wets, but a few, including Jamie Chadwick, starting on slicks.
As the lights went green, Chadwick took the start in the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca for her second-ever LMP2 outing, this time from the second row overall. In very tricky conditions, with water spray reducing visibility and cars on different tyres, Chadwick had to go wide into Turn 2 in avoidance of contact; she kept the car straight but had to run off-track, dropping down the order in class.
Several cars went off in the opening corners: the #83 AF Corse LMP2 of François Perrodo spun and was hit head-on by the #8 Virage machine, immediately bringing out the Safety Car.
The race resumed after a 12-minute neutralisation, with several more cars struggling to keep it on track. The Iron Lynx LMP2 of Jonas Reid spun but was able to rejoin.
As the rain intensified, Chadwick — now down to 18th — survived the chaotic opening and began her charge back through the field.
She pitted on lap 6 as conditions worsened, switching to wet tyres. IDEC Sport executed a clean stop, and with most of the LMP2 field also pitting for wets, Chadwick made it back up to sixth in class.
She began running in the 2:12s and was among the top four in class on pace, chasing down Pipo Derani. Jamie soon improved to a 2:10.3 and consistently held strong pace.
The Safety Car returned when the #37 CLX LMP2 of Malykhin crashed into the barriers. The race was neutralised as it reached the one-hour mark.
At the restart with 2h55m remaining, Chadwick climbed to fifth after the #43 Inter Europol car of Smiechowski finally made its first stop. She began to gain ground on Matthias Kaiser while fending off Ryan Cullen’s Vector Sport entry.
Jamie pitted from fifth on lap 31 after a strong stint, having recovered from the early moment and run a clean race in extremely challenging conditions. She handed over to Daniel Juncadella with 2h40m to go.
Juncadella, in his second LMP2 stint of the season, rejoined in fifth and quickly settled into a good rhythm. He moved up to fourth after Theo Pourchaire pitted and began to close in on Vladislav Lomko in the #10 Vector Sport Oreca, running less than a second ahead. Both Juncadella and Lomko were lapping in the 2:08s as the track dried, but the Spaniard couldn’t quite get close enough to attempt a move. As the #25 APR Oreca pitted at the mid-race point, Juncadella and Lomko cycled into second and third.
On lap 54, Juncadella pitted for dry tyres and remained in the car. After the stop, he rejoined in second and immediately set the fastest lap of the race — a 2:05.718, the first sub-2:06 lap of the day. He continued to improve over the next few laps.
With 1h30m remaining, it was time for young star Mathys Jaubert to take over from Juncadella for the final stint in the #18 IDEC Sport Oreca, inheriting a strong position.
Just one lap into his stint, Matteo Cairoli’s #9 Iron Lynx Proton Oreca lost a wheel. Soon after, an incident between Luca Ghiotto’s Inter Europol car and Job van Uitert’s IDEC LMP2 brought out the Safety Car again, with Van Uitert ending up deep in the barriers.
Jaubert, running fifth overall and first of the cars already on four stops, was now perfectly placed for a strong finish. The race resumed with 1h08m to go. Once the top four runners made their final stops, Jaubert cycled into the overall lead on lap 73.
The Frenchman maintained a consistent pace in the 1:52s, holding a stable gap of over two seconds to the chasing pack. With 40 minutes to go, the final round of pit stops began: Jaubert pitted on lap 85 for his last scheduled stop and IDEC Sport executed another clean service, with Jaubert rejoining in the overall lead once more.
He kept his cool and extended his advantage, aided by four Pro-Am LMP2 cars sitting between him and the nearest Pro-class contender. Once Filipe Albuquerque pitted from second, Jaubert now had a comfortable margin.
The young Frenchman continued to manage his lead, entering the final 10 minutes with a gap of over 13 seconds to the #43 Inter Europol Oreca of Tom Dillmann, who was only gaining a few tenths per lap.
Heavy traffic in the closing laps saw James Allen’s Pro-Am Nielsen Racing LMP2 close in rapidly. But once Jaubert cleared the slower GT traffic, he stretched his lead once again. The closest LMP2-Pro entry remained over 10 seconds behind.
After four hours of intense racing, Mathys Jaubert crossed the line to win for IDEC Sport. Jamie Chadwick, with back-to-back victories, made even more history as the first woman to win a European Le Mans Series race outright.
“Honestly, incredible", said Jamie Chadwick after the race. "There's still a lot of work to do, personally, to get to the performance I want to get to, but at the same time, I think to have two wins from two, I'm very fortunate.”
“I’m in a great team with great teammates that are making us look very strong this year, which has been fantastic. We've just been trying to learn as much as we can, no mistakes, and that's just paid off, so I'm very happy."
Chadwick and her teammates now extend their championship lead in the LMP2 class, having taken full points from the first two rounds. The next race is scheduled for 6 July at Imola, where Jamie has previously raced in Formula Regional European Championship in 2020.