For the fourth of five rounds of the European Le Mans Series, the nine Dunlop teams in the top LMP2 category return to France following a very successful Le Mans 24 Hour race for the teams riding high in the standings. The two tyre specifications nominated for this event will be the medium and hard compounds that worked so well for the French epic, the same allocation as for at the opening round in the UK.

Paul Ricard is a high speed track with similar characteristics to the Le Mans circuit and Dunlop’s engineers will work with the teams to ensure that the data gathered previously will help to get the best performance for each squad.

Signatech, Jota and Race Performance were the top three finishers at the last round in Austria – the current order in the standings. Signatech’s lead came courtesy of the Red Bull Ring win but they now lie only four points ahead of Jota, the squad with the Imola victory and three pole positions to their name. No team has been on the podium at all three events this season.

Practice sessions take place on Saturday 13th September with qualifying on the morning of Sunday 14th September followed by the four-hour race starting later that day at 13.00hrs local time.

Dunlop Teams

28 Greaves Motorsport, Zytek Z11SN Nissan: Luciano Bacheta, Mark Shulzhitsky
29 Pegasus Racing, Morgan Nissan: Julien Schnell, Niki Leutwiller, Jonathan Coleman
34 Race Performance, Oreca 03 Judd: Michel Frey, Franck Mailleux, Rodolfo Gonzalez
36 Signatech Alpine, Alpine A450 Nissan: Paul Loup Chatin, Nelson Panciatici, Oliver Webb
38 Jota Sport, Zytek Z11SN Nissan: Simon Dolan, Harry Ticknell, Filipe Albuquerque
41 Greaves Motorsport, Zytek Z11SN Nissan: Matthew McMurry, Johnny Mowlem
43 Newblood By Morand Racing, Morgan Judd: Christian Klien, Gary Hirsch, Pierre Ragues
46 Thiriet by TDS Racing, Morgan Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey, Tristan Gommendy
48 Murphy Prototypes, Oreca 03 Nissan

Racing Stat – A Matter Of Seconds

ELMS may be endurance racing but every second counts. At the last round Signatech Alpine won but Jota and Race Performance were only 12 and 18 seconds behind respectively. Jota spent seven seconds longer than Signatech in the pits and Race Performance were 20 seconds slower –  so even though this is endurance,  just a few seconds faster or slower in the pits or on track could have given very different results.

Mike McGregor, Dunlop Engineer:
“This is a track we know well and we have the advantage of plenty of data for all of the teams on the 2014 tyre and chassis combinations so we can really help teams push to get maximum performance. The tyres are working well so it’s a case of working with each team to get the best for each car and driver combination.”