A determined drive at Le Mans for Iron Dames

Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey, and Célia Martin took on the greatest endurance race of them all, the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the Porsche 911 GT3 R, valiantly finishing the race – their seventh Le Mans chequered flag in succession – despite unfortunate setbacks.

With the world’s most prestigious endurance race ahead of her, Célia Martin got the Iron Dames effort underway from 18th in the LMGT3 Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The French racer put in three excellent opening stints on her 24 Hours of Le Mans debut, vaulting up to 10th before handing the reins to Michelle Gatting’s stand-in Sarah Bovy.

With Sarah at the wheel, yet more progress was made, and she even took the lead of the class during her three stints. Having consistently occupied spots in the top five, she handed the #85 back to Célia.

Through the night stints, Célia, Sarah and Rahel Frey fought valiantly and were rarely outside the top ten positions, exhibiting excellent pace.

Then, with just over nine hours left to run, disaster struck when contact with another car sent Rahel into the gravel trap.

After the Porsche was recovered, the bad luck continued as a gearbox issue saw the car wheeled back into the garage, dropping multiple laps on the class lead.

From there, the Iron Dames trio remained determined, refusing to give in and setting competitive lap times for the remainder of the race.

Rahel ultimately brought the #85 Porsche home in 16th place, marking the 7th completion of the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the Iron Dames.

RAHEL FREY

"So that's a wrap on the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2025. It was a pleasure. Our rookie, Célia did super well. I was super happy that Sarah jumped in last-minute for Michi. Honestly speaking, that's not that easy. But we made it once again as Iron Dames, another finish. Not how we wanted to finish, but that's racing. We say thank you very much Manthey and Iron Dames, but also our partner TotalEnergies. We will come back stronger."