Jamie Chadwick takes third LMP2 win at Silverstone to revive ELMS title bid
- RACERS
- Sep 14
- 5 min read
In an action-packed fifth round of the European Le Mans Series season at the 4H of Silverstone, Jamie Chadwick, alongside teammates Mathys Jaubert and Daniel Juncadella, secured their third win in LMP2 and are back into the title fight with only one round remaining.
In an action-packed fifth round of the European Le Mans Series season, Jamie Chadwick, alongside teammates Mathys Jaubert and Daniel Juncadella, secured her third win in LMP2, bringing her back into the title fight with only one round remaining.
Chadwick claimed victory on home soil after an impressive opening stint of the race, which was twice disrupted by red flags. Starting from 11th on the grid, the IDEC Sport #18 Oreca driver climbed up to fourth thanks to a strong strategy, before handing over to Jaubert, who kept the car in contention among the frontrunners. In the decisive final stint, Daniel Juncadella emerged in the lead with a perfectly timed tyre strategy as the rain intensified, and the Spaniard built a gap he held consistently in worsening conditions.
It marked Chadwick’s third LMP2 win and her second overall victory of the season, adding to a remarkable debut year in sportscars after stepping up from single-seaters, where she had previously earned three W Series titles and a race win in Indy NXT.
In 2025, Chadwick joined IDEC Sport for the European Le Mans Series campaign, racing alongside Jaubert and Juncadella in a program supported by the Genesis Magma project.
Her debut has been nothing short of remarkable, starting with a class win and second overall at Barcelona, followed by her first overall victory at Le Castellet.
At Le Mans, she was once again in podium contention until a technical issue ended their race prematurely. The third round at Imola was promising, but an incident for Juncadella meant the trio finished just outside the points. At Spa-Francorchamps, Chadwick and her teammates delivered another strong run, finishing second on track, only for a post-race penalty to drop them out of the points again.
Chadwick’s home race at Silverstone – the first ELMS visit to the iconic British track since 2019 – was therefore a crucial chance to return to the title battle. And the IDEC Sport crew did not disappoint, delivering a flawless performance in challenging weather conditions.
The weekend, however, started with challenges, as the team struggled for outright pace practice and qualifying, lining up only 11th on the grid for Sunday’s four-hour race. In opening practice, Juncadella set a 1:44.561 for sixth fastest, while Jaubert and Chadwick continued to make progress. In FP2, they placed ninth as they worked on fine-tuning the setup.
Rain fell just before qualifying on Saturday, though conditions began to dry. Juncadella set a 1:43.667 in the #18 Oreca, good enough for seventh before late improvements dropped the team to P11 for the start.
With the race brought forward by an hour due to weather concerns, conditions were dry at the start of the first 4 Hours of Silverstone since 2019. Chadwick took the start from P11, dropping briefly to P13 but quickly recovering as she avoided first-lap chaos to reclaim 11th. A stranded LMP3 car brought out a Virtual Safety Car on lap two, during which Chadwick pitted to top off fuel before rejoining 12th.
On the restart, Chadwick pressured Giorgio Roda in the #77 Proton Oreca and executed a clean move at Copse. She then caught Ryan Cullen in the #11 Vector Sport Oreca and moved up into 11th. Her pace was strong, running in the 1:47s and soon closing in on Matthias Kaiser’s Algarve Pro entry.
Forty minutes into the race, a major accident involving Martin Berry’s Iron Lynx Mercedes and Malykhin’s CLX LMP2 car triggered the first red flag for barrier repairs. After a 28-minute stoppage, racing resumed, with Chadwick continuing to push, setting a best lap of 1:45.541 and running quicker than the cars ahead.
However, another heavy crash – this time for Giorgio Roda, hit by an LMP3 and sent into the barriers on Hangar Straight – brought out a second red flag. Having stayed out while others pitted, Chadwick moved up to fourth overall thanks to an alternate strategy.
At the restart, with 2h53m remaining, Chadwick handed over to Jaubert, who rejoined ninth. The Frenchman immediately cleared Van Uitert and battled hard in traffic, climbing to fourth while setting a personal best of 1:45.186. Running long on strategy, he eventually pitted from third.
As forecasted, rain soon returned. Jaubert continued to post competitive lap times, passing cars in tricky conditions before pitting on lap 67. Juncadella climbed aboard with wet tyres fitted, just as the rain worsened.
The strategy worked perfectly: Juncadella emerged as the fastest car on track, taking the overall lead and steadily pulling away. His pace in the 2:00s opened up an 18-second margin over Tom Dillmann’s Inter Europol car.
As the rain intensified, Juncadella maintained control, keeping Dillmann and Fittipaldi at bay. A final pit stop on lap 90 with 43 minutes to go saw the #18 Oreca rejoin still in the lead, although narrowly ahead of Dillmann.
Traffic management proved crucial, but Juncadella kept the gap stable at 1.5 seconds. With 17 minutes to go, a Full Course Yellow was called after the M Racing Ligier shed tyre debris. By now, visibility had become extremely poor with the heavy spray.
At the restart, Juncadella held firm, keeping a five-second margin into the final 10 minutes before the worsening weather forced race control to display the red flag with eight minutes left.
With a commanding wet-weather stint from Juncadella, supported by Jaubert and a stellar opening drive by Chadwick, the IDEC Sport trio claimed victory in the 4 Hours of Silverstone.
It was Chadwick’s third LMP2 win of her rookie sportscar season, and arguably one of her strongest performance yet in the Oreca 07.
"Very special", commented Chadwick. "I mean, when you get home in the rain like this, it feels fitting. It's funny because I think Spa and Imola, we had maybe a bit more performance, but didn't quite get the result, and then here I think we fell on the back foot all weekend, and then suddenly the way that the race panned out, two great drives [from Jaubert and Juncadella], put us in a position to get another win, which feels like how it's fallen for us this year".
"It has been a bit unexpected but also couldn't be happier for the whole team", Chadwick continued.
The result puts the #18 IDEC Sport crew on 75 points – just six behind the championship-leading VDS Panis Racing team – with the title to be decided at the season finale, the 4 Hours of Portimão on 16–18 October.
"I think something we've not actually looked at too much", Jamie added about the championship hunt. "I think VDS have a lot of raw speed and performance, we seem to do a good job when it comes to putting races together, so I think anything could happen in Portimao, but we're gonna do our best and see what we can do at the last one."
