The Iron Dames commanding performance at barcelona

At ELMS Barcelona round the Iron Dames led 117 laps of the 121 covered. Michelle Gatting, Sarah Bovy and Célia Martin stamped their authority on the four-hour contest with a commanding performance.

📷 © Piero Lonardo at Barcelona 2025. From left to right: Michelle Gatting, Célia Martin and Sarah Bovy

Martin maintains gap over #63 Mercedes

Célia Martin qualified on the front row for her ELMS debut at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, less than two tenths off pole position time. 
Once the lights went out, the Iron Dames driver wasted no time in snatching the lead, as Célia Martin jumped to the head of the field on the very first tour. 
Throughout the initial half hour of running, the French racer maintained a slim one-second gap over the #63 Iron Lynx..

By the time of the first stops just before the end of the first hour, Martin had extended her margin to around five seconds and when she re-emerged from the pits, the gap to second sat at four seconds.  
A Virtual Safety Car presented an opportunity for a second pit stop, but Martin remained at the wheel and retained her lead at the restart.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona 2025. Celia Martin in Porsche #85 ahead of Martin Berry with Mercedes #63

CÉLIA MARTIN: “I was trying to manage the Iron Lynx car behind me, create a gap and manage the tyres. That was the game I was trying to play; to be consistent and stay in the zone. It was a completely different approach in the ALMS races last year and earlier in 2025. That was all to gain experience for this championship and that helped me today – I really enjoyed my stints, the car was great.”

Bovy widen the gap

With an hour and 50 minutes to go, she pitted for a third and final time, handing over to Sarah Bovy, who emerged from the pits with a four-second gap to her closest competitor. 
Bovy got her head down in the early laps of her stint, and quickly opened the gap to 10 seconds.  She then seized the opportunity to pit under VSC, but stayed behind the wheel. Bovy gave it everything to fend off the chasing pack as the race entered its final hour.  

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona 2025. #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R

SARAH BOVY: ”Firstly, we've all been very concerned for Marta [García] overnight, so it was amazing to arrive at the track today and hear she had no major injuries. We just want to tell her that we won for her today. My first race as a silver was incredible. Célia did great, but when I got in the car, there was so much pressure. Michelle was there to keep me in the right mindset though; she helped me a lot with that. Today was about consistency and keeping the tyres alive and I think we all did that really well.”

Gatting resist to Serra’s pressure

With just under 50 minutes left to run, Sarah finally dove into the pits and Michelle Gatting was unleashed for the final stint. One then saw Daniel Serra with the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 literally melting on the Porsche in a few laps. Gatting resisted the intense pressure until the last caution. When the cars were released for the last two laps, Gatting resisted in a nail-biting two-lap shootout to draw the race to a close.
After four hours of competition, she crossed the line to claim the first LMGT3 victory of the 2025 ELMS season and the first for the Iron Dames X Porsche partnership. .

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona 2025. From left to right: before last caution Serra (Yellow Ferrari 296 GT3 #57) manages to reduce the gap with Gatting’s Porsche in a few laps.

MICHELLE GATTING ”Pressure seems to be quite good for me. Of course, it would've been nice to have more of a gap, but I knew the tyres would drop when they pushed too hard behind. I knew that I was more in control than they were, and I could see where I was stronger and where they were stronger, so I was trying to take advantage of that. The job that Celia and Sarah did today was amazing. I'm very happy to start the year like this, because not getting points in this race last season was one of the main reasons we missed out on the championship.”

Related info

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona. 4 women at start of race with the 4 clinching P1

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona. Mercedes-AMG in LMGT3 and Ligier JS P325s in LMP3

📷 © Luc Warnotte at Barcelona. Reshad De Gérus and Giorgio Roda pace LMP2 quali.

📷 © Luc Warnotet at Barcelona. Iron Lynx among the best in FP1 at Barcelona