The top three Le Mans LMP2 finishers at the Le Mans 24 Hours were all European Le Mans Series (ELMS) teams, the current top three in the standings. Despite the race not counting towards the ELMS championship points tally, teams and drivers will have taken confidence in their performances. Four of the six race leading cars and seven of the top ten driver laps were from the ELMS contenders.

The success of the Dunlop soft compound tyre at Imola and Le Mans will add to the mix with the new-for-2014 tyre proven on the 40 degree track heat of Imola and the 12 degree night temperatures at Le Mans. The Red Bull Ring track induces low wear because of the low energy demands so after the triple stints in the heat of Imola the tyre should work well in Austria even if the ambient temperatures are high. The second available tyre is the medium compound which gives teams different strategy options depending on car set-up and driver line-up.

Practice sessions take place on Saturday 19th July with qualifying on the morning of Saturday 20th July followed by the four hour race starting later that day at 14.00hrs 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
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: Tom Kimber-Smith, Matthew McMurry, Mark Patterson
43 Newblood By Morand Racing, Morgan Judd: Christian Klien, Gary Hirsch
46 Thiriet by TDS Racing, Morgan Nissan: Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey, Tristan Gommendy
48 Murphy Prototypes, Oreca 03 Nissan: Rodolfo Gonzalez, Karun Chandhok, Nathanael Berthon

Racing Stat – What drop-off?

At Le Mans Jota’s Harry Tincknell set a fastest 10-lap average stints in the order of 3:40.1 – just 0.12 seconds off the fastest single non-Dunlop lap – with tyres on their third stint.

Mike McGregor, Dunlop Engineer:
“This event should be a good one for the Dunlop teams given the excellent performance that we saw from them at Le Mans on the same tyres. Being able to multi-stint with a very low drop-off in performance gives plenty of options for the drivers and engineers. With the circuit characteristics suiting the traction of our soft tyre and the medium option being available we could see some great lap times and interesting strategies.”