Karen Gaillard completes European Endurance Prototype Cup season with top-5 at Le Castellet

"We can be proud of our pace during the year" – Karen Gaillard finished the 2024 European Endurance Prototype Cup season with a fourth-place class finish at the Le Castellet finale, marking her fourth top-five result of the season after consistently battling for podiums at the wheel of the #71 ANS Motorsport NP02 prototype.

Photo credits: Davy Delien

Karen Gaillard concluded the 2024 European Endurance Prototype Cup season with a hard-fought fourth-place finish at the 4-hour Le Castellet finale, battling for both class and overall victory until the closing stages of the race, ultimately securing her fourth top-five finish of the season.

The young Swiss driver, who made her GT3 debut in 2024 after joining the all-female team Iron Dames, returned to the Ultimate Cup-sanctioned European Endurance Prototype Cup for a second year after claiming the Vice-Champion title in 2023.

Returning behind the wheel of the #71 ANS Motorsport Nova Proto NP02, Gaillard teamed up with Marc Faggionato and Iko Segret in a competitive field featuring some experienced endurance racing teams and drivers. The trio showed great speed throughout the season, consistently battling for podium positions but were often hit by unfortunate circumstances.

While they couldn’t achieve a podium finish—which Gaillard had done four times out of the six rounds in 2023—they claimed a fifth place in class at the season opener at Le Castellet, before returning to the top five at Hockenheim with a P4 in the NP02 class and a fifth place in the red-flagged and rain-disrupted Mugello race.

While in contention for the podium at the 4 Hours of Magny-Cours, the penultimate round of the season, an incident in the closing stages involving one of her teammates unfortunately ended their race prematurely, resulting in their first DNF of the season.

The finale at Le Castellet, which traditionally closes out the Ultimate Cup championships, was therefore an opportunity for Gaillard and her teammates to bounce back from that setback and wrap up their campaign on a high note.

During Thursday’s testing, the team ranked consistently in the overall top three and carried that speed into Friday practice, where they finished the day fourth fastest overall, second among the NP02 entries, with a best time of 1:59.800.

Qualifying took place on Saturday, with the grid being shaped by the average combined times from each driver’s individual sessions.

Gaillard took the wheel for Q1 in rainy, treacherous conditions in the early morning. She initially placed in the top five, as times tumbled, and ultimately set a 2:18.104, placing P10 overall on a drying track and sixth in class.

Iko Segret took over the #71 NP02 prototype for the second qualifying session, immediately placing sixth. He improved to 2:16.320, securing fifth and holding position until the chequered flag—in a great effort for the ANS Motorsport driver.

One more session remained to determine the final grid for the season finale: Marc Faggionato took over in the Q3 session, initially placing sixth overall with a 2:20.2, though times improved significantly as the track dried quickly. He ultimately finished P18 as track conditions continued to change, with the team’s average best lap time of 2:17.351 securing them P11 on the grid, eighth in class.

Photo credits: Davy Delien

The final race of the season, the 4-hour Le Castellet, was held in mixed weather conditions and in the night, adding to the challenge. With the sun setting and temperatures dropping, the field was set for a dramatic race under the lights.

Faggionato started from P11 overall and quickly gained a position when Sebastien Page spun at Turn 2, completing the first lap in P9 overall and fifth among the NP02 entries. Although he briefly lost positions by Lap 2, he soon settled into seventh in class, setting steady times and making up ground by improving his sector times each lap.

As Faggionato approached the 30-minute mark, he dropped under the 2:02 range, running consistently and climbing to fourth in class as the race neared its first hour, with pit stops commencing. The #71 ANS Motorsport Nova Proto climbed to second overall and first in class before their first stop on Lap 29, when Faggionato stayed behind the wheel, rejoining fourth in class and within the overall top five as teams began to split on strategies.

The bronze-rated driver soon climbed into the top three position: a full-course caution was deployed with 2 hours and 36 minutes to go when the #7 car of John Corbett sustained a suspension failure at Turn 10. With class leaders pitting, Faggionato stayed out and took over the class lead.

After the restart on Lap 43, Faggionato stayed in the car while other teams had already opted to make multiple stops. He soon pitted, with Gaillard taking over the #71 Nova Proto and rejoining in seventh in class.

Gaillard immediately set the car’s personal best with a 2:01.0 before going under the 2-minute mark, climbing to sixth in class. She quickly closed in on her ANS teammate Jaubert in the sister #73 car, passing him on Lap 50 and advancing to fifth.

With rain beginning to fall and two hours remaining, Gaillard remained on track and moved up into the overall top five and third in class as other teams began pitting. Despite worsening conditions, she maintained competitive lap times, gaining ground as cars ahead made mistakes in challenging conditions, reclaiming the overall lead by Lap 57.

Karen continued to be one of the fastest among the front runners, building a 19-second gap to second-placed Nicolas Maulini before her third stop for refueling. After this stop, she retained third place, with the leading pair—the #154 and the #51 NP02 entries—on a different pit sequence.

With heavier rain falling again and 1 hour and 20 minutes to go, Gaillard continued solidly, surviving the worsening conditions on slick tyres before pitting on Lap 70 to hand over to Iko Segret for the final part of the race.

Photo credits: Davy Delien

"Marc did a good job as always in the start which is not easy during the night", Gaillard said, summarizing the race. "I took the second stint and after a few laps, it started to rain a little bit but not enough to put rain tyres."

"Then it dried and later, it started to rain again, more this time, but only in sector 3, so sector 1 was still dry", she continued, describing the challenging conditions. "All this during the night, it reminded me a bit of my target which is Le Mans, so I enjoyed a lot those difficult conditions and learnt a lot!"

Segret started his stint strongly, setting competitive times and completing a short run before another pit stop with one hour remaining. With rain easing, teams opted to switch back to slicks; Segret rejoined in the 2:02 range, running behind the #154 car of Rossel and the #27 of Provost.

Segret pitted one more time with 30 minutes remaining, matching Provost's stop count as the battle for the NP02 class win intensified. When Poulet in the #72 car pitted again, Segret briefly reclaimed the lead before his final stop, rejoining in fifth place.

He gained another position when George King stopped at Turn 1 and was back in contention for the podium when Provost made his final pit stop from the lead. Now third, Segret’s podium hopes were however dashed on Lap 100 when the team received a stop-and-go penalty for a pit-stop time infringement, which dropped the #71 car to fifth in class.

After 4 hours of intense racing, Iko Segret crossed the line in fourth place in the NP02 class and fifth overall, marking their fourth top-five finish of the season and their best overall result.

"Iko did a fantastic job to finish the race as well", Gaillard recalled. "We just missed the podium because of a stop & go because one pit time was 2 tenths too short. It’s very disappointing and this unfortunately reflects our entire season. Because honestly, we had the pace for podiums in every race and for sure a win in Hockenheim but we always had a little problem which prevented us from being on the podium."

Although the season concluded without podiums, Gaillard and her team displayed consistent speed and racecraft, always battling for at the top of the standings and achieving a season-best with this strong result.

"We can be proud of our pace during the year and I really want to thanks my team ANS Motorsport for those two amazing years with them, my teammates Iko and Marc for the excellent atmosphere we had the three together and of course all my partners because without them this would not have been possible", Karen continued. "I really hope to be back behind the wheel of this really nice car which is the Nova NP02 and with this team soon!”