The 4 Hours of Le Castellet ended with a nine-place finish in the LMP2 class for Matteo Cairoli. The driver from Como, at his second weekend in the European Le Mans Series at the Circuit Paul Ricard, got back on track with the Oreca 07 #9 of Iron Lynx – Proton with Jonas Ried and Maceo Capietto in an attempt to finish the race in the points after an unlucky retirement in the first seasonal round. Matteo proved to be competitive right from the beginning of the weekend, conquering the fastest lap in the second free practice session. Then, he greatly improved during the qualifying round, putting the third fastest lap in the timing sheets in 1:40.365 and obtaining a start in the second row of the grid for the French round.
The start was later commissioned to Ried, who actually lost a couple of positions due to a drive-through that the race direction commended for track-limits disrespect. He settled for seventh place and then handed the car to Capietto during the second hour of the race. On his home track, the French driver was the protagonist of a pretty great stint, unluckily marred by another drive-through penalty. Matteo took the wheel of the car during lap number 80 and had to serve, just like in Barcelona for the first race, the penalty handed to his teammate. However, the promising race pace shown in the final stint allowed Cairoli to make up some positions, crossing the finish line ninth and collecting the first point placement of the season.
The next race of the European Le Mans Series will go underway on July 7th at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari of Imola, making it the home race for Cairoli.
Matteo Cairoli
“It wasn’t an easy weekend, but I’m happy about the rhythm we proved to have. The third place we obtained in the qualifying round made us really faithful, and I want to thank the team for the support. Jonas and Maceo keep growing, even if our results are still marred by penalties we should try to avoid. I can’t wait to go on track again in a couple of months in Imola for my home race”.
