The Iron Dames’ weekend got off to a perfect start on Saturday afternoon when Sarah Bovy, at the wheel of the #83 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, secured pole position. She is the first woman to achieve the feat in European Le Mans Series history. With a damp track greeting the competitors at the start of Sunday’s race, Bovy managed to hold on to a top 3 place in the LMGTE field. The team then opted for an alternative strategy that saw the pink Ferrari regain the upper hand by the end of the first hour. Doriane Pin took the second stint and built up almost a two-lap lead before handing over to Michelle Gatting. Keeping her rivals at a safe distance, Gatting crossed the finish line one lap ahead of the #69 Aston Martin Vantage AMR fielded by Oman Racing with TF Sport.

Bovy, Pin and Gatting had become the first all-female line-up to win a round of the European Le Mans Series. The win clinched third place in the final championship standings, guaranteeing the Iron Dames an invitation to the 24 Hours of Le Mans Centenary (10-11 June 2023). “This has really been the perfect weekend for the Iron Dames project,” said project founder Deborah Mayer. “To get a first pole position for a female driver in ELMS and then become the first all-female line up to win a race in the series in the same weekend is something I find very moving and makes me incredibly proud. This weekend’s success is proof that the Iron Dames project is working and it is succeeding as a result of the everyone’s efforts, the whole team made this happen. The project is about motivation, determination, strong performance, but above all we are women driven by dreams with a strong message behind us and lots of passion. We race to inspire women to follow their dreams and take the first step into motorsport, because as we’ve shown today, it is possible to make it happen.”

After the race, Bovy said: “It was not an easy win, that race was epic! The traffic was just a nightmare. It was tricky and I think the secret today was to stay out of trouble, be fast but consistent, and not make any mistakes. Of course, the amazing strategy that the team pulled off because we won also in the box. I think everybody did their job perfectly today and we can be very proud of that. This season, we have shown that even if we were not always lucky, we kept our head down, we kept working and never panicked. As a team, we just stayed united and I’m super proud of everybody for that reason.”

Gatting has been involved in the project since day one and while enjoying the taste of victory, hinted that more was yet to come in 2023. “It’s very special because we saw it [the win] coming along the way this season,” she said. “We were so close but had a bit of bad luck with different things coming in the way for us. We should be happy with P3 [in the final championship standings] but, for sure, we came for more. There’s no doubt about that. We have a lot of unfinished business and I hope we can continue and go for it next year.”

With the Iron Dames also running in the FIA World Endurance Championship this season, Gatting, Bovy and Rahel Frey will be determined to conclude the 2022 season in the best possible way at the 8 Hours of Bahrain next month (10-12 November).