Red Bull Ring - The Sound of The ELMS

In LMP2 there are five chassis manufacturers all powered by Nissan engines, with the eleven teams representing eight different nations.

The no38 G-Drive Racing Gibson-Nissan of Simon Dolan, Harry Tincknell and Giedo Van Der Garde are the current championship leaders thanks to a win at Silverstone and a second place finish at Imola.  The no38 Gibson, racing under JOTA Sport colours, won in 2015 at the Red Bull Ring and has claimed the pole position at every race held in Austria since 2013.  The Anglo-Dutch trio have a 13 point advantage over the no32 SMP Racing BR01-Nissan of Monaco’s Stefano Coletti, Colombia’s Julian Covelli and Germany’s Andreas Wirth.

Imola race winners, and 2012 ELMS champions, Thiriet by TDS Racing and Mathias Beche, Ryo Hirakawa and Pierre Thiriet, are 17 points behind the championship leaders and will be looking to build on their strong performance in Italy to close the gap even further.

The no33 Eurasia Motorsport Oreca-Nissan of Pu Junjin, Nico Pieter and Tristan Gommendy was the highest ELMS finishers at last month’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, taking the chequered flag in 5^th place in LMP2, 53 seconds ahead of the no41 Greaves Motorsport Ligier.  However top honours went to Nico Lapierre, who returns to the cockpit of the n21 Dragonspeed Oreca in Austria, for the second year running as the French driver stood on the top step of the podium for 2015 ELMS Champions Signatech Alpine. 

Once again the LMP3 grid wiLL feature 19 cars and 54 drivers, with the 14 teams representing 8 different nations.

After securing two wins from two starts at Silverstone and Imola, the no2 United Autosports Ligier of Alex Brundle, Michael Guasch and Christian England head to Austria with a 25 point advantage over their teammates Mark Patterson, Matt Bell and Wayne Boyd in the no3 Ligier. 

Christian England joined forces with 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and former world sportscar champion Martin Brundle for the non points scoring Road to Le Mans race last month, finishing on the podium in front of 200,000 fans.  He was joined on the podium by American John Falb, who drove a solo race to 3^rd place in the Graff Ligier-Nissan.  Falb will be back in the no10 Graff Ligier at the Red Bull Ring with his teammates Sean Rayhall (USA) and Enzo Potolicchio (VEN).

The no19 Duqueine Engineering Ligier of David Hallyday, Dino Lunardi and David Droux is currently in 3^rd place in the LMP3 title race after finishing 4^th at Silverstone and Imola and the Franco-Swiss trio are just 1 point behind the no3 United Autosports Ligier and will be looking for their first podium of the 2016 season in Austria. 

After finishing 3^rd in Italy the all French no16 Panis Barthez Competition Ligier of Eric Debard, Valentin Moineault and Simon Gachet will be looking for further podium success and are currently in 4^th overall, 3 points ahead of the no11 Eurointernational Ligier of Italian drivers Giogio Mondini and Marco Jacobini who finished second at home at Imola last time out.

Eight cars will line up on the LMGTE grid with 24 drivers from 8 nations and will feature the only Austrian representative on the ELMS grid for the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring.  The no56 Ferrari F458 Italia is run by Austrian team AT Racing for father and son Alexander Talkanitsa senior and junior, the Belarusians joined once again by Alessandro Pier Guidi. 

AT Racing are currently lying in second place in the title race, thanks to two podium finishes in the opening two rounds, just two points behind the all British no99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 of reigning British GT Champion Andrew Howard, Darren Turner and Alex MacDowall, who took maximum points at home at Silverstone in April.

The no77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 of Germany’s Wolf Henzler and Marco Seefried and American Michael Hedlund is in 3^rd place after winning in Italy from pole position, one place ahead of the no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Rory Butcher, Robert Smith and 2010 FIA GT1 World Champion Andrea Bertolini.

Reigning LMGTE Champions Formula Racing have not enjoyed the best start to the 2016 season and the all Danish lineup of Johnny Laursen, Mikkel Mac and Christian Nielsen will be hoping for a turn of fortune in Austria to get their title defence back on track.

The 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring will take place on Sunday 17 July at Austria’s premier race track near Spielberg in the Styrian Alps.  The third ELMS Weekend will feature Round 3 of the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup as well as races by the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Renault Sport Trophy.  A weekend of exciting FREE family entertainment is on offer both on and off the track.

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