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No Le Mans for Vanthoor

Earlier this year Laurens Vanthoor and the French team had announced that they would work together in the French endurance classic.

#11 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra: Stéphane Ortelli, Laurens Vanthoor

#11 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS ultra: Stéphane Ortelli, Laurens Vanthoor

XPB Images

Laurens Vanthoor will not be competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Sébastien Loeb Racing this year. Both parties agreed on this decision, even though it was not an easy one to make. Earlier this year Laurens Vanthoor and the French team had announced that they would work together in the French endurance classic. Despite the news, the Belgian driver will do his 10 mandatory laps with Sébastien Loeb Racing and so he will be ready to drive.

Laurens Vanthoor: “Quite obviously I’m very disappointed, but the team finally decided to collaborate with a funded driver, a decision which was not easy to accept, but on the other hand I can also understand why they did so. I’m a professional driver, which obviously has certain advantages for a team, but on the other hand it also requires a certain amount of commercial and financial elements. Those elements were not in place and this meant that Sébastien Loeb Racing opted for another path. I wish them all the luck for Le Mans this year.”

Second place Laurens Vanthoor
Second place Laurens Vanthoor

Photo by: XPB Images

Laurens Vanthoor, the reigning FIA GT Series champion will start this weekend in the first round of the Blancpain Sprint Series in Nogaro, after finishing fourth in the opening Endurance race in Monza last weekend. Of course Vanthoor will race in Nogaro with the Belgian Audi Club WRT, together with Brazilian Cesar Ramos.

Laurens Vanthoor: “Both series, in collaboration with WRT and Audi, have my entire focus for 2014, as also the 24 Hours of the Nüburgring. Le Mans could well still take place, but if it is not this year, it will be in 2015. It’s a magnificent race and of course I want to compete in it. In fact I’m convinced that it will happen. Anyway, I will do my 10 mandatory laps in Le Mans during the test day for Sébastien Loeb Racing. This means that I will be ready in any case.”

During the last weekend of March, Laurens Vanthoor had already won the opening round of the VLN, together with Marc Basseng and Frank Stippler in the Phoenix Racing Audi R8 LMS Ultra. “My second start for Phoenix on the Ring, my second victory. I wouldn’t mind if things were to continue in this same manner.” Vanthoor also competed earlier this year with the German team in Bathurst to finish in a strong top 5.

Laurens Vanthoor

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