After the high drama of the Road to Le Mans last month the competitors of the 2018 Michelin Le Mans Cup will take part in a 2-hour race on the impressive circuit at the Red Bull Ring in the Austrian Styrian Alps on Saturday 21 July.
The event in Austria will be the fourth of six on the 2018 calendar and the race will mark the start of the second half of the season to determine who will be crowned 2018 champions in both the LMP3 and GT3 categories. Twenty seven cars, 21 LMP3 and 6 GT3, will form the grid, with the teams and drivers representing fifteen different nations from around the world.
At the Road to Le Mans last month there was success in LMP3 for the no25 Lanan Racing Norma-Nissan, with British drivers Duncan Tappy and Michael Benham standing on the top step of the podium in front of tens of thousands of fans a couple of hours ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
A third and fourth place finish in the two 55 minute races at Le Mans has kept double race winners Jens Petersen and Leonard Hoogenboom, in the no3 DKR Engineering Norma, at the top of the points table. The Dutch / German pairing have a comfortable 29.5-point advantage over the no2 Ecurie Ecosse/Nielsen Racing pairing of Tony Wells and James Littlejohn.
In GT3 Giacomo Piccini and Sergio Pianezzola head the championship standings by 11 points thanks to two victories in Le Castellet and Monza in the no8 Kessel Racing Ferrari. The Italian pairing finished second in race one at Road To Le Mans and started the second on pole position. However a collision with race one winning no71 AF Corse Ferrari of Marco Cioci forced both cars into retirement and allowed the no51 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Christoph Ulrich and Maurizio Mediani to take the victory and second place in the championship.
The four Ferrari F488 and single Porsche 911 GT3, run by reigning champions Ebimotors, will be joined by the no35 Krypton Motorsport Mercedes AMG GT3 for the first time in 2018. The car is entered by the Italian team for two bronze drivers Stefano Pezzucchi and Marco Zanuttini, who will both be making their Michelin Le Mans Cup debut at the Red Bull Ring.
The Red Bull Ring is a firm favourite with the teams and drivers as the 4.318km circuit has long sweeping curves with elevation changes provided by its location in the foothills of the Styrian Alps.
CLICK HERE for the provisional entry list for the fourth round of the 2018 season.
