Racing Spirit of Leman AMR team triumph in Spa ELMS
Sunday, August 24, 2025
Having to qualify the car in the persistent rain of Saturday, bronze rated Mateu was still able to give him and his team the best chance possible ahead of today midday start to this four-hour race with a P3 starting position within LMGT3 which was then further enhanced to a front row start after the application of a five place drop for the #63 Iron Lynx car following an incident last time out at Imola.
The forty-four mixed class grid of LMP2, LMP3 and thirteen LMGT3 class cars eventually got underway with thankfully a dry track and warming late summer sunshine for this fourth round to the season.
From that point Mateu wasted no time at all as he grabbed the class lead as early as the exist of La Source on the first time around to quickly establish a lead over the chasing pack over those opening laps as the race went into a Virtual Safety Car condition with a car off in the gravel after just forty minutes.
Although grouped back together again, the chasing Iron Dames Porsche soon had the attention of others behind them as the racing finally got back to green at the end of the first hour but (like many times before) that was very short lived as an LMP2 car went off heavily into the tyre wall just a few corners on although stops had now placed the #59 car down to second in class by the end of the second hour.
Unlike the Code Racing Development Aston Martin in the Le Mans Cup Series race yesterday, the in-car discipline of Mateu onto silver graded Bastard and then onto factory driver Hasse-Clot was totally on-point with the #59 crew becoming one of the few LMGT3 based crews not to come to attention of race control over the final two hours.
With Bastard again next in line within the car after Mateu’s opening double, that young Frenchman quickly regained control of the class but with still the Iron Dames Porsche leading the chasing pack behind him as he eventually handed over to the factory driver Hasse-Clot.
A brief Full Course Yellow then delayed the resumption of the LMGT3 battle between the #59 and #85 Porsche but losing out to the Iron Lynx Mercedes who had assumed the class lead. Another FCY with just nineteen minutes remaining made for a nail-biting end to the Spa four-hour race but Hasse-Clot was eventually able to pass the #63 car to take their first class win of the season by less than a second.
With the series now heading to Silverstone next month, this result lifts the #59 crew up to first in the LMGT3 Drivers Championship, one point in front of the Iron Dames crew with just two races remaining.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
