Spielberg in Austria hosts the third round of the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) on July 17th. The 4 Hours of the Red Bull Ring will feature more intense competition on track after a two-month break in the series, during which the Austrian track has been resurfaced.

Since the last race several of Dunlop’s regular ELMS squads took part in the epic 24 Hours of Le Mans. Eurasia Motorsport was the highest ELMS finisher followed by Greaves Motorsport in fifth and sixth places respectively in a closely fought LMP2 class where the top seven teams were all Dunlop-runners. Series leader G-Drive Racing’s number 38 car retired after completing over 15 hours while Thiriet by TDS Racing retired with 7 and a half hours remaining having led 58 of the 357 laps.

Dunlop is keen to preserve its record of taking all three ELMS podium places following the 100% record from the first rounds at Silverstone and Imola and is allocating the new-for-2016 soft and medium options for LMP2. In the all-Dunlop LM GTE class, teams continue with the season-standard medium and medium-plus compounds. Dunlop’s engineers will be on hand to assist teams with set-up to suit the new track conditions.

Mike McGregor, Dunlop Manager Testing & Track Support : “We had a very strong race at Le Mans with our 2016 tyre range and hope that the success continues in Austria. There are a few driver changes – it will be good to have Harry Tincknell back with the #38 G-Drive/Jota car following his factory GT drive at Le Mans and Nathanaël Berthon is now with Greaves Motorsport after racing with them at Le Mans. The biggest change by far from our perspective though will be the resurfaced track which can often lead to aggressive conditions. We will need to closely monitor tyre wear and adjust our set-up recommendations depending on how the track and conditions develop throughout the weekend to get the best performance for everyone. It’s always good to have some new parameters to add to the mix.”

The European Le Mans Series 4 Hours of the Red Bull Ring starts at 14.00 CEST on Sunday 17th July.

Dunlop European Le Mans Series 2016 Tyres

LMP2 – Set specification (soft, medium, medium-plus, intermediate, wet)

• Open tyre competition – 14 cars competing
• 10 Silverstone entries have chosen Dunlop tyres
• Two out of three dry specifications nominated per event
• Soft and medium dry weather options nominated for Silverstone
• Tyres permitted per 4 hour event: 5 sets plus two single tyres
The LMP2 range is the same new range that features in WEC. The different conditions of Europe, generally cooler, combined with the improved operating windows, will tend to favour the soft and medium options in ELMS.

LMGTE – All-Dunlop class (medium, medium-plus, intermediate, wet)
• Controlled/single brand tyres for all three manufacturers represented
• Tyres permitted per 4 hour event: unlimited
• Intermediate tyre introduced for 2016
• 2016 confidential tyre range – supervised use with greater performance
The ELMS LMGTE Pro range is all-new for 2016, designed specifically for ELMS with improvement emphasis on performance and consistency. The introduction of Dunlop’s intermediate tyre will reduce team costs and add strategy options during races with mixed weather conditions.