Round 3 of the 2015 European Le Mans Series will take place at the magnificent Red Bull Ring in Austria on the 11-12 July. Set in the foot hills of the Styrian Alps near Spielberg, the Red Bull Ring offers the teams and drivers a unique challenge on this current F1 circuit as the race for the 2015 titles hots up.
ELMS – Twenty Nine Cars Ready for the Bull Ring
The LMP2 class will have the largest grid in Austria, with 12 cars due to take the start. Championship leaders Thiriet by TDS Racing, and French trio Pierre Thiriet, Ludovic Badey and Tristan Gommendy, hold a slender 2 point lead over Greaves Motorsport (Gary Hirsch, Bjorn Wirdheim and Jon Lancaster) thanks to the victory in Imola and the third place in Silverstone. JOTA Sport currently lie in third place, six points behind the French team but the British team were the most successful ELMS runners at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing on the podium at the end of the world’s most famous race. After racing with two different drivers in Le Mans, Simon Dolan will be joined by Audi works driver Filipe Albuquerque and Nissan’s Harry Tincknell once again.
SMP Racing will be out in force with the Russian team fielding the two brand new Nissan powered BR01s, which scored two finishes at Le Mans and one finish on the cars debut in Imola. David Markosov, Nicolas Minassian and Maurizio Mediani will drive the no27 car while the no37 BR01 will feature an all Russian line up of Mikhail Aleshin and brothers Kirill and Anton Ladygin.
San Marino outfit Ibanez Racing will also be fielding two cars once again, with the first Oreca 03-Nissan being driven by Pierre Perret and Yutaka Yamagishi and the second by Jose Ibanez and Ivan Bellarosa.
Ireland’s Murphy Prototypes had a good run at Le Mans, finishing 5th, and along with their second place finish in Imola with be hoping for a good race in Austria with Nathanael Berthon, Michael Lyons and Mark Patterson in the third of four Oreca 03 that will be on the grid. The fourth Nissan powered Oreca 03 is entered by Eurasia Motorsport with Chinese driver Pu Jun Jin and Dutchman Nico Pieter de Bruijn sharing the driving.
Pegasus Racing will once again field the sole Morgan for Leo Roussel, David Cheng and Julien Schell and the grid is completed by two Ligiers. The Krohn Racing Ligier JS P2 driven by Tracy Krohn, Niclas Jonsson and Julien Canal is the only Judd powered car on the grid and the second Ligier, powered by a Nissan engine, is being run by Algarve Pro Racing on the Portuguese team’s 2015 LMP2 debut with James Winslow, Michael Munemann and Andrea Roda.
Four cars are entered in the new for 2015 LMP3 class in Austria. Spanish outfit SVK by Speed Factory as currently in second place after two races and Konstantin Calko, Jesus Fuster and Dainius Matijosaitis will be performing the driving duties in Austria.
Team LNT will be fielding two Ginetta Nissan’s and Silverstone race winners Chris Hoy and Charlie Robertson will be looking to return to the top step of the podium after Italy proved to be an unhappy event for both them and their sister car. Russia’s Mark Shulzhitskiy will join Gaëtan Paletou of France in the no2 LNT run Ginetta.
The LMP3 grid will be completed by all Italian team Villorba Corse, with Roberto Lacorte being partnered by Giorgio Sernagiotto in the no5 Ginetta-Nissan.
The fight for the LMGTE title is wide open as the 2015 season approaches the half way point. Just nine points covers the top seven teams and drivers The LMGTE grid features the only Austrian team and driver taking part in the 4 Hours of the Red Bull Ring. Championship leaders AT Racing will field a Ferrari 458 Italia for Italian Alessandro Pier Guidi and Belarussian Father and Son duo Alexander Talkanitsa senior and junior. The 4 Hours of Imola winners currently hold a 3 point advantage over the no86 Gulf Racing UK Porsche 911 of all British driver line up of Michael Wainwright, Adam Carroll and Daniel Brown
Proton Competition currently lie in third in the LMGTE championship, just four points behind AT Racing. After finishing second in Italy in May Austria’s Richard Lietz will join German duo Sebastian Asch and Christian Ried in the team’s Porsche 911 RSR for the 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring.
BMW Team MARCVDS are running the only LMGTE spec BMW Z4 and after two 4th place finishes in the opening two races of the ELMS season, the Belgian team will be hoping for a podium finish in Austria from Andy Priaulx, Henry Hassid and Jesse Krohn.
The rest of the eight car field in the LMGTE class is made up of Ferrari 458s. AF Corse will run two of these. The no51 car for Peter Mann, Raffaele Giammaria and Matteo Cressoni was the topped placed ELMS finishes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMGTE Am class with a 5th place. The no55 AF Corse run 458 will once again be crewed by Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and Aaron Scott and are currently lying in 5th place in the championship but just seven points behind AT Racing.
JMW Motorsport and Formula Racing will each run a Ferrari 458 at the Red Bull Ring. Thanks to a fine second place finish at home in Silverstone, JMW Motorsport are currently holding 4th place in the LMGTE Championship, 6 points behind AT Racing , with an all British driver line up of George Richardson, Robert Smith and Samuel Tordoff. Denmark’s Formula Racing Ferrari will feature race winners Johnny Laursen and Mikkel Mac and Italian Andrea Rizzoli.
The five car GTC entry will feature BMW, Ferrari and Aston Martin. Thanks to a victory in Silverstone and a fourth place finish in Italy the TDS Racing team hold a five point advantage over the no64 AF Corse Ferrari. The TDS Racing duo of Dino Lunardi, Eric Dermont and Franck Perera will once again be challenging in their GTC spec BMW Z4.
Imola race winners Francesco Castellacci, Stuart Hall and Rino Mastronardi will be racing in the no62 AF Corse run Ferrari 458 and Giorgio Roda, Marco Cioci and Ilya Melnikov will be in the no63 458.
The all Danish team Massive Motorsport will be bringing the only Aston Martin Vantage on the ELMS grid with Casper Elgaard and Simon Moller racing with fellow Dane, and reigning LMGTE Am World Champion, Kristian Poulsen.
The 4 Hours of Red Bull Ring will take place in Austria on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 July and is round 3 of the 5 race 2015 European Le Mans Series. This great racing week-end will take place on Austria’s premier race circuit, and feature the 5th meeting of the Formula Renault 3.5 and the 8th of the brand new TCR International Series.
Press release ELMS
