With more than 200 cars and 700 drivers competing on a 25-kilometre circuit, the Nurburgring 24 Hours in Germany is reputed to be one of the toughest races in the world.

And for the first time in 10 years, Pirelli has claimed pole position for the epic race thanks to a record pole time of 8m10.921s, set by Dorr Motorsport driver Kevin Estre in a McLaren MP4-12C.

Estre’s remarkable benchmark was made possible with the help of Pirelli’s new DSS tyre, whose structure and compound was specifically developed for the varied demands of the Nurburgring Nordschleife, famously described by Sir Jackie Stewart as the “green hell”.

With open tyre competition at the Nurburgring, Pirelli defeated every other major tyre company represented at the race, many of whom also use the Nordschleife for development purposes. The German track is reputed to be the most demanding circuit currently in existence, having been deemed too dangerous for Formula One following the 1976 German Grand Prix.

Kevin Estre, who will share the car with Sascha Bert, Peter Cox and Tim Mullen for the race that starts tomorrow said: “It was a great lap that I’m very proud of: many thanks to the team for preparing a great car and also to Pirelli. The DSS tyre is a special product, which undoubtedly played a part in the record time that we set today.”

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery concluded: “Many congratulations to Kevin and the whole Dorr Motorsport team on their great achievement. A huge amount of development and technology has gone into our new DSS tyres, which contain a lot of the know-how that finds its way onto our Ultra High Performance road car tyres. With GT racing using cars that are very similar to the supercars we equip on the road, endurance racing is one of the most relevant disciplines we compete in when it comes to technology transfer. And few events are tougher than the Nurburgring 24 Hours.”

The race gets underway at 4pm tomorrow.