A complicated Easter Sunday for Matteo Cairoli, busy on the circuit named after Enzo and Dino Ferrari for the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in the LMGT3 class. The Como-based driver, grappling with his new adventure aboard the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, continues to make progress in understanding the car, philosophically opposed to those driven in the past, although the final result has a dull color on the home weekend in the world endurance calendar. Cairoli, alongside Claudio Schiavoni and Matteo Cressoni, got into the car for the second stint after one hour of racing of the total six. An unusual strategy to fill the gap accumulated in the first stint after due to a start from 17th place.
Cairoli managed to recover seven positions – six of those on the track – giving back the wheel to Matteo Cressoni in 10th position in the LMGT3 class with 4 hours and 10 minutes to go.
The Safety Car with 2 hours to go brought the group back together, while in the final part of the race a light rain fell on the Santerno circuit which lowered the temperatures, without ever wetting the track enough to be able to fit the wet tires. A condition that did not help the drivers on the track in the LMGT3 ranks, due to the only slick compound available to them.
The 28-year-old Iron Lynx standard-bearer for this 2025 FIA WEC season returned to the car with 44 minutes to go, in a temporary 16th position in the class, then transformed into 15th place at the end of the final waltz in the pits. The Como driver was unable to close the gap on the car in front of him, as the AMG GT3 was fitted with tyres that had been squeezed to the limit at that point. The Imola weekend was not easy, with a 15th place finish and the technical difficulties of adapting a Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo in its debut season in the FIA WEC, as happened to the sister car of Iron Lynx.
Despite this, the 6 hours of racing for the Italian team’s crew were more linear than the inaugural round in Qatar. The data acquired with the low temperatures in Imola could be useful in view of the next event, when the Cairoli/Cressoni/Schiavoni crew will head to Spa-Francorchamps for the third round of the FIA WEC, scheduled for May 10.
