Having won three consecutive Formula W titles between 2019 and 2022 and then, last year, become the first woman ever to claim an Indy NXT win on a road course, trailblazer Jamie Chadwick has made yet more motorsport history.

Her latest ground-breaking performance came at Paul Ricard in France where the pioneering 26-year-old became the first woman in history to win outright a round of the European Le Mans Series.

Teaming up with Daniel Juncadella and Mathys Jaubert, Chadwick started from the second row and survived tricky wet-dry conditions at the start of the rain-affected 4 Hours of Le Castellet to hand over her #18 IDEC Sport ORECA LMP2 in a strong top six position. Thereafter her team-mates stayed out of trouble on a drying track, taking full advantage of a faultless pit strategy to secure the overall victory.

“I’m in a great team with great teammates that are making us look very strong this year, which has been fantastic. No mistakes and that paid off,” enthused Jamie after celebrating her latest milestone on the podium.

“The start was very tricky with slicks in damp conditions. From then on the strategy was executed flawlessly and my teammates were incredible. First, we’ll enjoy this well-earned victory, but right after that we’ll start preparing for next month’s Le Mans.”

Nic Minassian, the Team Principal of IDEC Sport, was equally delighted. “They ran the perfect race,” he reported. “Jamie nailed her first two stints – she handled the tough conditions well. We will keep this momentum going, stay focussed and prepare meticulously for Le Mans.”

The 24 Hours of Le Mans (14/15 June) is not part of this year’s ELMS championship ­– the next round in that comes at Imola on 6 July with three further four hour encounters at Spa-Francorchamps (24 August), Silverstone (14 September) and Portimão (18 October) to follow.

Chadwick, Juncadella and Jaubert also came close to winning the opening round in Barcelona but had to settle for second in the overall classification and a class win in the LMP2 category. Having now gone one step better in France with an outright victory as well as maximum points in LMP2, the trio has established a commanding championship lead after two of the six points-scoring 2025 ELMS showdowns.

“Let’s hope we can keep this going at Le Mans and for the rest of the year,” concluded the history-making Chadwick.