Audi Sport has named its teams and drivers for this year's Total 24 Hours of Spa during the first day of official testing at the Belgian circuit.
The German marque, which has clinched four overall victories during the past decade, will spread its factory drivers across three teams at this year's event. Two cars will run under the Audi Sport Team WRT banner, while Audi Sport Team Saintéloc and Audi Sport Team Attempto will each run a single R8 LMS in the twice-around-the-clock classic.
In the WRT camp, Endurance Cup championship leaders Mirko Bortolotti and Kelvin van der Linde will share their car with fellow factory driver, and two-time race winner, René Rast. The sister car will see full-season Endurance Cup contenders Christopher Mies and Dries Vanthoor joined by Robin Frijns, the latter making his fifth start for the team at Spa.
Having taken overall victory in 2017 and back-to-back fourth-place finishes in the following seasons, French outfit Saintéloc Racing also remains part of the Audi Sport family. Christopher Haase and Markus Winkelhock will share the car for a fourth year in succession, joined for the first time by Nico Müller. The Swiss racer has started the previous five editions for WRT, finishing as runner-up in 2015.
The third squad is new to the Audi Sport fold at Spa. Attempto Racing will field its full-season Endurance drivers Mattia Drudi and Frédéric Vervisch alongside Patric Niederhauser, the latter making his first appearance as an official Audi driver at Spa. The German brand is also set to be represented by several customer cars at this year's race, which takes place on 22-25 October.
Audi Sport Team Attempto
Mattia Drudi / Patric Niederhauser / Frédéric Vervisch
Audi Sport Team Saintéloc
Christopher Haase/Nico Müller/Markus Winkelhock
Audi Sport Team WRT
Mirko Bortolotti/Kelvin van der Linde/René Rast
Robin Frijns/Christopher Mies/Dries Vanthoor