Mortara-Kvyat-Grosjean fight for overall victory in the 10-hour Road Atlanta marathon
Sant’Agata Bolognese/Braselton, GA, 12 October 2025 – The Lamborghini SC63 recorded its best ever result in its final IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP race, finishing fourth in the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta in the hands of Romain Grosjean, Edoardo Mortara and Daniil Kvyat.
For its final race before the programme is paused for the 2026 GTP season, the crew of the #63 machine started seventh on the grid and showed excellent form in the race to emerge as one of the main challengers to the race-winning Cadillac in the closing stages.
Indeed, the car looked set to finish a stunning second place at the end of 10 hours of racing, before having to make a late energy stop with just over five minutes remaining. The bittersweet moment dropped the SC63 off the podium, but the factory-run operation was still contented with a fabulous fourth at the end.
Free Practice and Qualifying – GTP
Fresh off the back of a positive penultimate round at Indianapolis, the SC63 – with an upgraded rear suspension designed with the bumps of Road Atlanta in mind – began the weekend with the sixth-fastest time in Thursday’s opening free practice session. The first day of action also gave the crews valuable night-time running with the #63 of Grosjean-Kvyat-Mortara ending up 12th and 11th in the second and third sessions respectively. Grosjean qualified the car on Friday, his time of 1m10.309 good enough for seventh on the grid and just a couple of hundredths away from the second row of the grid.
Free Practice and Qualifying – GTD and GTD Pro
The marathon weekend started in promising fashion for the #9 crew of Andrea Caldarelli, Marco Mapelli and James Hinchcliffe in first practice, setting the fifth-quickest time but the team encountered issues with the mandated torque sensor in the second session, meaning it completed just 16 laps in the night session. Unfortunately, the sensor issues continued in qualifying and, after receiving a mechanical black flag, could only set one lap and the car ended up 10th in class for the race.
A difficult GTD weekend began in similar style with the #45 WTR crew of Graham Doyle, Trent Hindman and Danny Formal managing 18thand 16th in the first two sessions before improving to ninth in the night running. Struggling with outright pace in qualifying, Hindman put the car 12th on the grid. The #78 Forte Racing machine of Misha Goikhberg, Mario Farnbacher and Eric Filgueiras qualified 18th.
Race – GTP
Grosjean started the #63 and kept his nose clean on the opening lap despite dropping behind the #24 BMW and #10 Cadillac to ninth place. Two early Full Course Yellows interrupted the rhythm and the SC63 initially fell to last after the first energy-only pit-stop, but Grosjean recovered to 10th at the second restart. Mortara then took over and completed a solid double stint before handing over to Kvyat where the car remained inside the top 10. With strategy set to play a crucial role in the second half of the race, the #63 led overall on several occasions prior to its scheduled pit-stops.
Mortara and Grosjean then alternated in the closing hours, keeping the SC63 firmly in contention for a strong result as fuel and energy consumption became ever-more important. Slight contact with an LMP2 car damaged the front-left headlight forcing the team to change the front nose of the car as Grosjean got back in for the remaining two hours. With many GTP runners pitting for energy in the final minutes, the SC63 emerged as the nearest challenger for the victory, before also needing to pit for energy with just five minutes left. The car agonisingly finished just off the podium in fourth at the chequered flag.
Race – GTD and GTD Pro
A multi-car incident on the opening lap at the Esses meant the race for the #45 was over almost as soon as it started. Contact from a Lexus as the field bunched up behind the concertinaed mid-field pack left the car started by Hindman with a broken driveshaft, forcing it to stop on-track before eventually making it back to the pits. The team elected to take the car behind the wall to make the necessary repairs, but it lost multiple laps and all hopes of a strong finish. The #78 Forte Racing Huracán was also implicated in the opening-lap chaos and lost a couple of laps early on with front-end damage. Fortunes did not get much better after that and, despite making it back out on track, the race eventually becoming a de facto test session for both crews. The #45 did reach the finish in 12th with the #78 one place behind in 13th.
The #9 Huracán also had a troubled race, with two drivethrough penalties for pit-lane infringements, before an electrical issue forced the car to retire from the race before the final hour.
Quotes –
Romain Grosjean: “An amazing result for the whole team, we had a few small glitches with the car which cost us some time in the pits unfortunately, but overall, I think we can be very happy with P4, the best result for the car. We were hoping for a yellow at the end, but it didn’t happen; the probability was that it would happen, but the luck wasn’t quite on our side today. We did everything we could, there were a few issues that dropped us time at the stops, we lost four seconds on one of them, but all-in-all the team was amazing, and the car was good. I drove the hell out of it, but we were just a bit unlucky in the end.”
Daniil Kvyat: “This was the best result for the car, and we can be very proud of what we achieved this weekend. It was a tight race, very competitive and we made some good progress with the car, even though it didn’t solve everything. At least we went in the right direction.”
Edoardo Mortara: “It’s a bit of a bittersweet end to the season for us, I think we had some good pace this weekend, and also in Indianapolis we were able to show the potential of the car. In the end, it was a bit frustrating because I think we could have finished on the podium, but the luck didn’t really come for us, because we probably needed a late caution. But overall, we can be satisfied with the result, the team did a great job and the car felt good.”
