Nico Muller set for WEC debut at Shanghai

Audi factory DTM driver Nico Muller has signed with G-Drive Racing for next month's 6 Hours of Shanghai. It will be the Swiss driver's FIA World Endurance Championship debut, driving its LMP2 ORECA 07 Gibson alongside Pierre Thiriet and Roman Rusinov.

Muller, who won the 2015 Nurburgring 24 Hours with Audi, will drive in the seat which was filled by James Rossiter at Fuji, and originally taken by DS Virgin Racing Formula E driver Alex Lynn. Lynn, who also missed the FIA WEC round at the Nurburgring earlier this year, is set to take no further part in the 2017 WEC season. Despite securing a full-time Formula E drive for 2018, though, Lynn told RACER that sports car racing is still very much on his radar.

"The plan is to compete in Formula E and WEC side-by-side next season," he said.

Prior to being confirmed in the seat, Muller (above) completed a handful of laps in G-Drive Racing by DragonSpeed's ORECA 07 Gibson at Portimao in a test earlier this week prior to the European Le Mans Series finale at the Portuguese track. There he got his first taste of driving an LMP2 car.

"Roman (Rusinov) is in a situation where he needed somebody, and we're also at the time of the year where we are keen to see what options we have for next year, so I think the opportunity was good. It covered two needs," DragonSpeed team principal Elton Julian told RACER. "And Nico is a guy who if you get the chance, you put in the car. It wasn't to know if he could drive, it was to know how he would gel.

"For me, he ticks all the boxes, but on top of it, he's a good guy, a young guy. We've had Loic (Duval) in the car this year too, so we've been around the Audi guys a bit –we have a lot of respect for them.

"He did 11 laps. Not many got a lot of laps on Tuesday because it was such a mixed day with the weather. We planned to do more, but we couldn't. It was his first time ever (in an LMP2) and he was quick. Like any other of the pro drivers, he was on the pace immediately, and he didn't know the track, either.

"For those guys, it doesn't take a lot for them to drive to the limit of the tires. He was the same as Ben (Hanley) in terms of ramp-up, as neither knew the circuit. There was a little over-driving, a few things to clean up, but it wasn't a problem."