Loic Duval has made his way back to the FIA World Endurance Championship a year after Audi Sport took the chequered flag on their final race in the series. The Frenchman will join the LMP2 team G-Drive Racing for the final round of the season at the 6 Hours of Bahrain.
Duval has been absent from the endurance grid for the 2017 after Audi pulled out of the championship at the end of last year. He has spent the last year racing for Audi in DTM and participating in Formula E races for the Dragon Racing. Joining the G-Drive #26 car for the final race of the 2017 season will mark as the first time Duval has participated in a WEC race in a car that was not an Audi.
The 35-year-old driver takes the seat of fellow Audi DTM racer Nico Muller, who fills the G-Drive seat for Alex Lynn at the 6 Hours of Shanghai this weekend. Muller cannot continue his endurance role at the end of the month for the final round as the race weekend classes with the FIA GT World Cup in Macau.
The G-Drive Racing team sees a big shuffle as the end of the season looms closer. Silver-rated driver Pierre Thiriet has stepped down from the team, leaving a vacant seat for European Le Mans Series crowned-champion Leo Roussel to step up. Romain Rusinov, Roussel and Muller will take the wheel of the #26 for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Shanghai whilst Duval takes Muller’s seat when the grid heads to the final round of the season.
“We’re glad that Loic Duval will drive for us in Bahrain,” said Rusinov, the sole remaining original driver of the #26 G-Drive ORECA-07/Gibson. “We expect his experience of such a decorated driver to come into play for us. Together with Loic and Leo Roussel we’ll do our best to finish the season for G-Drive Racing in style.”
Last time Duval participated in a WEC race was at the 6 Hours of Bahrain last year, where he and team mates Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis took Audi’s final win of the series. Duval will be hoping to repeat his performance a year later, but in the LMP2 class where he will go toe to toe with ex-team mate Jarvis, who races and is currently leading the LMP2 championship in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing.
