The #85 Iron Dames Porsche, with drivers Celia Martin, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting finished tenth in LMGT3 at the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Starting from outside the top ten, it was always going to be a challenge to fight through the field, but Célia didn’t let that faze her as the race got underway.
She quickly climbed up to seventh before pitting twice under a Full Course Yellow; once to serve a start procedure infringement penalty and once to take on fuel and tyres. She rejoined in eighth and immediately became embroiled in a multi-car battle at the end of the first hour.
Célia fought in and around the top five for the next 60 minutes, and just as the third hour began, she snatched the lead at the top of the hill. Pitting from first, she handed over to Rahel who rejoined in seventh place. Just before the halfway point, she was back up into fourth and chasing down third.
With another Safety Car deployment, Rahel pitted and dropped to 15th rejoining in a five-car battle for the final top-ten spots. Having navigated another Safety Car restart, Rahel ducked into the pits from eighth, handing over to Michelle for the final stints.
Emerging from the pits in 12th, Michelle pushed on to the finish, eventually crossing the line to claim a hard-fought 10th place for a valuable championship point.
CÉLIA MARTIN said: “So that’s it for the third round of WEC here in Spa. It wasn’t a perfect day for the team. My stint went well overall, apart from a mistake which cost us time. We’re going to analyse what we can improve on over the coming days so we’re in a better position for Le Mans in June. I’m sure we’ll get stronger and learn from this.” By Melissa Warren
