Le Mans Cup: Celia Martin and Karen Gaillard close out the season with seventh-place finish

It was a promising end to the season for Martin and Gaillard who demonstrated good speed on their first outing together at Portimao, remaining in contention for a podium until the closing stages, nevertheless completing their rookie Michelin Le Mans Cup campaign with a positive run.

Photo credits: FocusPackMedia - Jan Patrick Wagner

Celia Martin and Karen Gaillard completed their first season in the Michelin Le Mans Cup with an encouraging seventh-place result at Portimao. After an interrupted qualifying session, Martin lined up fifth and enjoyed an excellent opening stint to hand over to Gaillard as the second-placed bronze rated driver.

The Swiss racer then used her traffic management skills to ensure the Iron Dames pair remained in podium contention, before a spin in the closing stages saw them take the checkered flag in seventh position within GT3.

The 2024 Michelin Le Mans Cup season has been hugely encouraging for both Celia Martin and Karen Gaillard who began the campaign as GT3 rookies. A strong start to the season saw the Iron Dames duo score points in the first three races of the year, while Martin’s pole position at her home track of Circuit Paul Ricard was a notable highlight. Gaillard’s second stint in round three was also impressive and this secured the pair a runner-up finish, their best result entering the season finale at Portimao.

Although the second half of the season has proven more challenging, Martin and Gaillard fought hard to clinch a top-5 finish at Mugello and were looking to carry forward this momentum into the final event of the campaign.

Despite not having as much experience racing at the Portuguese circuit as some of their rivals, the Iron Dames pair were looking to start the event on the front foot and gain valuable experience in the opening test sessions.

In the first collective test on Wednesday, the duo finished sixth fastest with Martin the quickest bronze-rated driver in the session. A fast lap from Gaillard saw them end the day in fourth position within GT3 as both drivers gained knowledge of the circuit.

Three sessions then took place on Thursday, with two free practice sessions separated by the bronze test for Martin to enjoy further running. The duo continued their impressive start to the event as Gaillard’s time of a 1:44.008 placed them second, while the Swiss racer completed more laps than any other driver in the GT3 class.

Martin, looking to add to her single pole position from earlier in the season, also showed excellent speed in the bronze test. The French driver set the fifth fastest time in the GT3 class, three-quarters of a second away from the quickest time set by Alex Martin. Thursday’s running was completed by a second free practice session in which the Iron Dames pair were seventh fastest in class.

Qualifying took place on Friday afternoon with good conditions remaining at Portimao. Martin was behind the wheel and her progress was initially interrupted after a red flag was required after four minutes due to the Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 of Frederic Jousset hitting the barriers.

Martin got back up to speed quickly and was showing good pace in the first sector especially. Her first flying lap put her inside the top-5, however a second red flag caused by Alex Martin in his Steller Motorsport Audi R8 GT3 brought the session to an early conclusion. After just two flying laps in qualifying, Martin had set the sixth fastest time and had secured a third row starting spot.

Photo credits: FocusPackMedia - Marcel Wulf

Following the incident for Alex Martin in qualifying, Steller Motorsport were forced to withdraw their entry and therefore Celia lined up from fifth position to start the season finale. The Iron Dames driver did a nice job to negotiate a busy opening sector while initially moving into fourth.

By the end of lap one, Martin was in fifth position after David Fumanelli, who was required to start the Kessel Racing machine after Jousset’s qualifying crash, had moved ahead. The LMP3 class car of Stefan Aust was beached in the gravel on the first lap and therefore the safety car was deployed.

Martin took the restart in fifth position within GT3 and was immediately applying pressure to Custodio Toledo. One lap later, the Iron Dames driver made a nice move to claim fourth position in GT3, third among the bronze rated drivers.

The race then quickly entered a full course yellow period while the ANS Motorsport LMP3 machine of Eric De Doncker required recovering. Celia was alert at the restart and closed the gap to James Swift, before overtaking the Blackthorn driver on lap nine.

Now with a small gap ahead of her, Martin set a personal best time which was the fastest lap among the bronze rated drivers. Her speed then brought her closer to the LMP3 machine of Andrew Ferguson with the P4 Racing driver struggling for pace at this stage of the race. Due to the characteristics of the different classes of car, overtaking Ferguson initially proved challenging.

On lap 15, Martin moved ahead and pulled out a sizeable gap over Toledo.

Martin’s pace in the second half of her stint was strong as she continued to build a gap to Toledo while regularly matching the leading bronze rated driver, Matthew Kurzejewski.

As her opening stint concluded, the safety car was deployed for a second time following a spin for George Nakas and debris which remained on the circuit. At the first possible opportunity, Celia pitted the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 to hand over to Karen Gaillard for the mandatory driver change.

Photo Credits: FocusPackMedia - Marius Hecker

The Iron Dames crew pitted at the same time as all of their GT3 rivals and were able to retain third position in class. Due to the advantage which Fumanelli had built up due to their different strategy, Jousset took over the car and was able to put a whole lap on the other GT3 drivers due to the timing of the red light at pit exit. Nonetheless, Gaillard restarted from third and with a significant offset in pace to Jousset, there was still a chance to catch the Kessel Racing machine.

At the restart, Karen was defending from Riccardo Agostini and although the experienced Italian driver moved ahead on lap 26, she settled into a good pace. Due to the positioning of the GT3 class cars, the majority of the LMP3 field restarted behind and the faster cars were now fighting their way through.

Here, Gaillard’s experience with traffic management paid off and she was able to position her car in the optimum position to allow the LMP3 machines to move ahead, while not losing too much time.

As a result, Gaillard extended her margin to Fran Rueda behind and maintained a consistent gap to both Agostini and Alessandro Balzan in second position. With a little over half an hour remaining, Jousset had a spin at the head of the GT3 field and therefore this made it more likely for the chasing pack to catch the Frenchman.

After setting a number of fast times in clear air, Gaillard had a spin on lap 37 and this dropped her to seventh in class, before a full course yellow period was required for a separate incident.

The racing resumed for just five minutes before another full course yellow period halted Gaillard’s attack on the Blackthorn machine of Ross Kaiser. Two further interruptions in the final fifteen-minutes prevented Gaillard from gaining momentum and after a spin for Max Van Der Snel, the race ended under full course yellow conditions with Gaillard taking the checkered flag in seventh position within GT3.

It was a promising end to the season for Martin and Gaillard who demonstrated good speed on their first outing together at Portimao. Martin’s first stint saw her hand over in second position among the bronze rated drivers, while holding down the fastest lap in GT3 for the majority of her stint.

Gaillard’s traffic management skills saw the team remain in contention for a podium result until a late spin saw them finish in seventh position. Both drivers have gained valuable experience in their first season of GT3 racing and will be looking to apply the knowledge learnt heading into the 2025 campaign.