INISSUE TOUCH24 MOTORSPORT NEWS MX1 CHAMPIONSHIP - SEASONDUNLOP FASTER AND MORE DSOURABLE WITH FAR 2012 LE MANS LMP2 WIN JULY 2012 MOTORSPORT DUNLOP ADR-DELTA WINS LMP2 AWARD AND TYRE PRIZE FASTER Dunlop awarded ADR-Delta a set of free tyres for setting the race’s fastest LMP2 lap. The 3m 38.803s, set by Jan Charouz in the team’s Oreca 03 - Nissan on lap 253, was considerably faster AND than last year’s best in class, at 3m 41.536s. MORE DURABLE WITH 2012 PODIUM FOR KROHN RACING Dunlop’s GTE Am category team, Krohn Racing, LE MANS scored a well-deserved third in class with their Ferrari 458 Italia with drivers Tracy Krohn, Niclas Jönsson and Michele Rugolo, the final of whom did more than his fair share of time behind the One of the three winning drivers was Ryan Dalziel. “It was a really good Dunlop’s targets for 2012 were to achieve the wheel. LMP2 WIN seemingly disparate aims of making Dunlop LMP2 race for us” he said. “We knew we were a little bit off the one lap pace relative to some of the faster LMP2 cars so we focused on overall race tyres capable of faster lap times and last for longer “Twenty four hours is a long time if you have to pace and maximising the performance from Dunlop’s tyres. The key was distances. drive it, and I drove a lot in that race!” said Michele. leapfrogging people by making more fuel stops - pitting after eleven laps Both targets were achieved in style. The pole “It was a very changeable week in terms of rather than after twelve.” position lap was over three seconds faster than last weather conditions so that makes it satisfying that “We triple stinted and even quadruple stinted so the Dunlop tyre year’s, while the race’s fastest LMP2 lap was a our result was good. We saw rain, cold, dry and performance was a big factor in our result. It’s been a great effort from comparable margin quicker too. warm. It made it difficult to get the setup always everyone at the Starworks Motorsports team.” In terms of durability, Dunlop tyres were able to right. Throughout the race the Dunlop tyres were maintain their pace through four stint durations. The very consistent and I am very happy. For sure, our #43 Extreme Limite Aric took their team name to heart race was not perfect and we were not as fast as with their tyre stategy, completing a hitherto unheard of some of the cars we were racing, but third position This year’s Le Mans 24 Hours race on June 16-17 provided six stint spell on the same set of medium compound is a good result for the championship, especially no end of thrills and spills over the course of the Dunlop tyres, which delivered consistent performance when it’s double points here at Le Mans. round-the-clock epic, with Dunlop the only tyre manufacturer throughout. to be represented in every class contesting the 80th running “The 80th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours was a of the event. fantastic event for Dunlop” said Jean-Felix Bazelin, Dunlop tyres delivered the pace and performance for a Director, Dunlop Motorsport. “At the start of the race fast-paced LMP2 battle which saw multiple lead changes over we knew we would win the LMP2 category as all the course of the 24 hours and a fantastic win for the #44 competitors had chosen to use our tyres. In this Starworks Motorsport HPD ARX 03b Honda. situation, we could have decided to relax our tyre Starworks, who finished on the overall podium of the FIA development, but instead we set ourselves high World Endurance Championship season-opening 12 Hours of targets.” Sebring, took the class lead at almost ten hours in and “We wanted to see faster lap times and we wanted withstood the strong opposition in the race’s most popular to see tyres which lasted longer. We achieved both of class to cross the finish line with a lap in hand from their these goals. Pole was over three seconds faster than nearest rival. last year. Teams regularly completed four stints and we didn’t see any drop-off in performance. We even saw ART CAR THWARTED BY MECHANICAL FAILURE six stints completed on one set of tyres by Extreme Dunlop’s 2012 Art Car Competition winning livery Limite. Our engineers did an outstanding job.” on the #66 JMW Ferrari 458 Italia had a promising Dunlop tyres were chosen by all twenty cars in the but ultimately short-lived challenge. After 204 laps LMP2 class as a reflection of the dominant category were completed, with drivers Jonny Cocker, James performance in 2011 where Dunlop won the class at Walker and Roger Wills in action, a CV joint Le Mans, in the Le Mans Series and in the WEC problem stranded the tyre-striped car out on track. predecessor, Intercontinental Le Mans Cup. motorsport.dunlop.eu MAY 2012 02 WHEN THE GOING GETS WET Aquaplaning is something a driver wants to avoid whether they are on the highway or on the race track. How do tyres Race derived cope with the effects of water in their path, attempting to prevent them from doing their job? Learn how they are designed to deal with water and the most dangerous of its affects – aquaplaning. Grip and Braking for the road VLNCHAMPIONSHIP Dunlop enjoyed a fantastic success in Germany with AMG Customer Sports Technical Partnership team ROWE Racing ROWE Racing AND who won the fifth race of this season’s Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring – or VLN – with the closest race ever over the world-famous Nordschleife. DUnlop WIN IN Drivers Jan Seyffarth and Alexander Roloff powered their Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG to the first win of the season for Dunlop and development partner ROWE with the victory also the first THE closest VLN triumph of an AMG-Mercedes in the 2012 VLN GT3. Crossing the line in the open tyre competition race, Roloff took the chequered flag by 0.338 seconds from his nearest rival, Marc race OF ALL TIME Lieb in the Manthey Porsche. The duo’s dicing had thrilled the fans and spectators of the keenly contested championship which races New short braking Massive outer New adaptive Light construction exclusively on the fearsome Nordschleife. blocks for reduced shoulder blocks for compound for enhanced carcass to improve braking distance improved stability grip on wet and dry fuel effi ciency “That was certainly one of the toughest races of my life” said Roloff. “The last few laps were an incredible fight. I was getting everything I could out of the car - and I am overjoyed that it was enough thanks to the constant performance from our Dunlop tyres. It’s a real compliment to Dunlop, who yet again had the right tyres for the prevailing conditions in the ‘Green Hell’.” The sister ROWE car succumbed to a test accident, meaning a time penalty of one minute and a pit lane start. Despite this, Michael Zehe and Marko Hartung staged a remarkable comeback which was rewarded with the excellent fifth place in GT3. www.dunlop.eu RL_dunBMW_GB_advertDINA4_27012012.indd 1 30.01.12 14:06 MOTO 2 UPDATE Rounds four to eight of the Moto2 World Third for Marquez put the pre-season favourite back on top, with former leader Luthi again slaying lap Championship have seen four different winners and records, this time by over two-seconds! Espargaro three title leaders in the exclusive Dunlop category. covered the 106km distance 50 seconds quicker than any previous British Moto2 winner. Marc Marquez (Suter) had been in command heading to Le Mans, but was Slight tweaks to the Dutch TT circuit at Assen caught out by wet race day conditions at the notoriously slippery circuit. While automatically meant a new lap record in a race that Marquez pondered what might have been - having smashed the pole record by saw an early spill for Espargaro and return to victory 0.8 sec in qualifying - Thomas Luthi (Suter) took his first win of the year and Pol for Marquez, building the Repsol rider’s lead to 23 Espargaro (Kalex) moved into the title lead. points. Front tyre choice was evenly split, while the A dry Catalunya saw a dramatic clash between Marquez and Espargaro, while soft rear was a near unanimous decision. Andrea Iannone (Speed Up) used the 302/3838 tyre combination to hold off Following the introduction of the new profile fronts Luthi’s 717/3838 mix by just 0.083s! Iannone’s winning time was 22 seconds in Jerez, Germany’s Sachsenring saw the debut quicker than last year, but it was Luthi who broke the lap record by over a of a new Dunlop rear in the form of the ‘ATR14’ second and took the championship advantage. construction, designed to replicate dual compound Cold and blustery conditions for the British GP made grip an especially qualities from a single tread compound. sought after commodity. Most opted for the softer 302 front, including winner Despite limited dry running, 26 of the 33 riders Espargaro, although runner-up Scott Redding (Kalex) proved the harder 717 in selected it for the race, where Marquez took the new combination with the softer 3855 rear could be just as competitive around the tyre to victory in partnership with the 302 front. Mika high-speed Silverstone circuit. Kallio (Kalex) rode the 717 front and dual-compound W919 rear to second place and Alex de Angelis (FTR) also claimed his first 2012 podium - setting a new lap record in the process.