After the high powered drama at the 24 Hours of Le Mans the focus now shifts to the next round of the World Endurance Championship and the new event on the calendar at Nürburgring in Germany, the home race for Audi and Porsche and close to Toyota’s base in Cologne.  The results in Le Mans have made the title race in all four categories more exciting as the World Endurance Championship approaches the half way stage of the 2015 season.

German fans will be able to get a close look at the cars that took part in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, especially the Porsche 919 Hybrid that took the Stuttgart manufacturer’s first win at La Sarthe for 17 years.  In total there are 10 drivers and 8 cars that are representing Germany in their home race.

Thirty four cars are on the provisional entry list with eleven LMP1, nine LMP2 and fourteen in LMGTE entries, evenly split between the Pro and Am classes.

André Lotterer, Benoit Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler in the no7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro will start the weekend as championship leaders, the 2012 World Champions holding a 20-point lead thanks to their third place finish at Le Mans. 

Nick Tandy is currently the Audi trio’s nearest championship rival with the addition of the 50-points he gained when he stood on the top step of the podium after the 24-hour race alongside Nico Hülkenberg and Earl Bamber.  The English driver will return to the LMP2 class in Germany where he will join LMP2 Le Mans winners Matt Howson and Richard Bradley in the KCMG run ORECA 05-Nissan.

The Audi, Porsche and Nissan teams will return to running two cars each in Germany, alongside the two Toyota TS040 HYBRIDS. 

Rebellion Racing returned to winning ways in the LMP1 privateer class in Le Mans on the debut of the AER-powered R-One and it will once again face the challenge from the single Bykolles CLM-AER.

As well as André Lotterer, German fans will have five further national drivers in the LMP1 class with Marc Lieb and Timo Bernhard racing with Porsche, Nick Heidfeld and Daniel Abt racing with Rebellion Racing and Pierre Kaffer in the Bykolles.

In LMP2 there will be nine cars competing for class honours with the Le Mans winning KCMG ORECA 05 currently leading the championship and returning with the driver line up that secured 4th place at Silverstone in April.  Russian team G-Drive Racing will be once again trying to return to the top step of the podium which the no26 Ligier of Roman Rusinov, Sam Bird and Julien Canal occupied in Round 1 at Silverstone, and the sister no28 car of Pipo Derani, Gustavo Yacaman and Ricardo Gonzalez secured at Round 2 in Spa-Francorchamps.

The American Extreme Speed Motorsports team will once again be fielding two Honda HPD-powered Ligiers after securing two points-scoring finishes at Le Mans.  The no35 OAK Racing Ligier-Nissan was also classified at the endurance classic but Team SARD Morand, Strakka Racing and Signatech Alpine will all be hoping for better luck in Germany after failing to reach the chequered flag in France.

Ferrari heads to Germany with a comfortable 45-point lead in the World Endurance Cup for GT Manufacturers but it knows it will face strong opposition from Porsche on home soil and from Aston Martin, the British manufacturer which featured strongly at Le Mans until ‘lady luck’ ran out.

Reigning champions Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander finished on the podium at Le Mans behind their AF Corse teammates James Calado and Davide Rigon, and the 36 points gained in France has given the Italian-Finnish duo a slim 4-point lead over Calado and Rigon. 

As well as the two Porsche Team Manthey 911s, with French duo Patrick Pilet and Fred Makowiecki in the no92 car and Austrian Richard Lietz and Dane Marco Sorensen in the no91 911, German fans will be able to cheer on Stefan Mücke in the no97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8.  Mücke, along with his long time British racing partner, Darren Turner, will be hoping for better luck than at Le Mans when a damaged oil feed stopped the V8 engine of their Vantage ‘Art Car’ 8 hours into the race. 

In the LMGTE Am Class there are two German-entered cars with all eyes bound to be on the no77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911.  Germany’s Marco Seefried is driving with American actor Patrick Dempsey and Porsche works driver Patrick Long.  The trio celebrated a well-deserved second place in LMGTE Am at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and there will undoubtedly be a lot of attention on them in Germany.

The second car run by Proton Racing is the Abu Dhabi-liveried Porsche 911 with Germany’s Christian Ried being joined by Emirati Khaled Al Qubaisi and Austrian Klaus Bachler.

The current class leaders are Andrea Bertolini, Alexey Basov and Victor Shaytar in the no72 SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia.  The 50 points gained for victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans propelled the Russian team to the top of the leader board. 

The Ferrari crew were promoted to the top of the podium thanks in part to the demise of the no98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Paul Dalla Lana in the final hour of the race, the Canadian crashing out while holding the class lead.  Dalla Lana, along with Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda, had gained maximum points at Silverstone and Spa and they will be hoping for a return to the top step of the podium in Germany.

Germany’s Roald Goethe will be looking for a speedy recovery to a back injury sustained at Le Mans and line up for his home race in the no96 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 alongside Italian Castellacci and former LMGTE Am World Champion Stuart Hall.  The second Ferrari on the GTE Am grid will be the AF Corse-run 458 for the French duo of Emmanuel Collard and Francois Perrodo and Portugal’s Rui Aguas.

The sole Chevrolet Corvette C7 is run by former class champions Larbre Compétition; Italian pairing Paolo Ruberti and Gianluca Roda will be joined once again in the no50 car by reigning LMGTE Am class champion Kristian Poulsen.

The 6 Hours of Nürburgring will take place on Sunday 30 August, with Free Practice on Friday 28 and Qualifying on Saturday 29 August.  The weekend will be a celebration of endurance racing at the world famous Nürburgring and there will be entertainment for the whole family to enjoy on the World Endurance Championship’s first visit to Germany.