24h Le Mans
After debuting and claiming a podium finish in the LMP2 class at the 2016 24 Hours, former F1 driver Will Stevens will return to Le Mans this year in the only Ferrari 458 Italia in the LMGTE Am field along with Rob Smith and Dries Vanthoor.
Head driver in the European Le Mans Series, Rob Smith will be joined by new teammates and make his debut at Le Mans this year, as will Dries Vanthoor, brother of official Porsche driver Laurens Vanthoor with two participations in the 24 Hours. The Brit and the Belgian will be supported by Will Stevens.
Last year, Will Stevens competed in several rounds of the World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) in the LMP2 class. At Silverstone and Spa, he drove one of Manor's two Oreca 05s before joining G-Drive Racing for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In his very first appearance in the 24 Hours, the Manor Marussia driver in F1 in 2015 reached the second step on the LMP2 podium with Roman Rusinov and René Rast. He replaced Rast at the Fuji and Shanghai rounds and pulled off two consecutive class wins.
Will Stevens and Dries Vanthoor are already acquainted since, along with Laurens Vanthoor, they took the start at the ELMS Spa round last year for the sole appearance of the Ligier JS P2 entered by the Belgian outfit Team WRT, a participation that ended in a second place finish overall.
The JMW Motorsport team, with seven participations in the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 2009, can aim for such a result since it is competing in the LMGTE Am class with the only Ferrari 458 Italia. The other teams entering a Ferrari have instead chosen the more recent Ferrari 488 GTE.
Photo: Will Stevens participated in the Prologue, the official testing sessions of the World Endurance Championship (FIA WEC), at the Paul Ricard circuit in 2016 with the Manor team.
