WEC: Porsche "borrows" McLaren's Estre for Spa

McLaren factory driver Kevin Estre has been loaned to Porsche for the next round of the World Endurance Championship at Spa-Francorchamps in May.

The Frenchman, who is a former winner of the Porsche Carrera Cups in both France and Germany, will drive the #91 factory Manthey-run 911 RSR in GTE Pro alongside Porsche junior driver Sven Muller.

Estre, whose primary program with McLaren this year is driving for VonRyan Racing in the Blancpain Endurance Series, and is also a winner already in the Pirelli World Challenge in a McLaren, said: "The Porsche one-make cups paved my way to a professional racing career, so I'm extremely pleased that the Porsche Manthey team have put their trust in me."

His inclusion in the team is part of a reshuffle of Porsche's GT lineups forced by the clash of the Spa WEC round and the Laguna Seca TUDOR United SportsCar Championship event on the weekend of May 2-3.

At the same time, its TUDOR squad is losing Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber, who will be racing the third Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 in Belgium.

Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz will join up at Spa in the #92 Manthey car. Their respective WEC teammates, Patrick Pilet and Michael Christensen, will be on duty in Monterey.

Pilet, who is contesting both series this year, will share his regular CORE-run 911 RSR with Christensen, while the Dane will double up and also drive the second entry together with Jorg Bergmeister in the two-hour-and-40-minute race.

Head of Porsche Motorsport, Frank-Steffen Walliser said that the clash was "an exceptional situation to which we've had to find a flexible solution."

Originally on Autosport.com