Roberti out of Le Mans, and an LMP2 driver shuffle
Paolo Roberti has ruled himself out of this years Le Mans following a crash today at Hockenheim while teaching a student. The car he was driving suffered a technical problem with its brakes on the backstretch at 200kph. Both Paolo and the student he was teaching are in hospital close the the circuit, Paolo suffering a fracture of his lumber vertebrae. As yet there has been no word from the Larbre Competition team as to his replacement for Le Mans
Roberto Merhi will replace Will Stevens and join Matt Rao and Tor Graves in car 44 for the 24 Hours of Le Mans while Will Stevens joins G-Drive Racing.
Having only one car entered for the 24 Hours of Le Mans instead of Manor's usual two cars entered in all other rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship, deciding upon a driver line-up for the iconic Le Mans race was always going to be a challenge. With vital points available for the driver’s World Championship Manor have worked hard to ensure that its drivers have every opportunity to compete in the race.
John Booth, Team Principal
“We are looking forward to our first Le Mans and excited with our driver line up.
Roberto and Matt have already shown they are a great partnership, achieving a podium finish in the Team’s second ever sports car race and we are sure that Tor will add to this already familiar partnership.”
Roberto Merhi, Driver
“I am very excited to be taking part in this great race that has so much history. I am really looking forward to racing with Matt and Tor and seeing what we can achieve together. I would like to thank the team for this amazing opportunity.”
Following G-Drive Racing’s announcement this morning about the exit of Nathanaël Berthon from its driver line up, the Russian team – which is managed by JOTA Sport – has announced Will Stevens as the replacement in the No.26 G-Drive Racing ORECA 05 Nissan.
The entry list for the official Le Mans 24 Hours test day on Sunday 5th June has been released and it can be found HERE.
All the registered teams and drivers use the opportunity to re-familiarise themselves with the 14 km track ahead of race week, and to start the work on the set up which they all hope will see them achieve success in the race on 18/19th June.
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