Duval Joins G-Drive for Bahrain

Photo: Audi

Loic Duval is set for his return to the FIA World Endurance Championship, having been confirmed in G-Drive Racing’s lineup for the season-ending Six Hours of Bahrain later this month.

The Frenchman will make his first WEC start since last year’s Bahrain race, when he was part of Audi’s LMP1 lineup.

Duval, who has moved to the German manufacturer’s DTM program, is expected to share driving duties of the No. 26 Oreca 07 Gibson with Roman Rusinov and newly crowned European Le Mans Series champion Leo Roussel.

Roussel makes his debut with the TDS Racing-run operation in this weekend’s Six Hours of Shanghai alongside Duval’s DTM teammate Nico Mueller, who is unavailable on the Bahrain weekend due to the FIA GT World Cup in Macau.

The one-off drive for Duval will mark the eighth different driver in the G-Drive WEC squad this year, with Rusinov having been the only full-season pilot.

The Russian was joined by Pierre Thiriet for seven of the nine rounds, with Alex Lynn contesting five of the six opening races before leaving the team prior to Fuji.

James Rossiter filled Lynn’s seat last month in Japan, with Ben Hanley subbing for the Englishman at the Nürburgring in July due to a Formula E clash, prior to the arrival of Mueller for Shanghai and Roussel for the final two races as a replacement to Thiriet.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John