WEC LMP2 field set as Richelmi joins DC Racing

Richelmi returns to the WEC's LMP2 ranks after a year out racing in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup, having been class champion in 2016 alongside Nicolas Lapierre and Gustavo Menezes at the Signatech Alpine squad.

The Monegasque racer partners the previously-confirmed Ho-Pin Tung and Gabriel Aubry in DC Racing's #38 Oreca 07, which is run by the Jota Sport outfit.

"I’m delighted to be part of the team for the WEC superseason," said Richelmi, who took the 2017/18 Asian Le Mans Series crown with DCR alongside Thomas Laurent and Harrison Newey.

"I’ve been close to David [Cheng, team co-founder] and Ho-Pin since we met in Alpine two years ago, I really appreciate them. They work hard together with Jota Sport to become a reference in endurance races.

"While we together already won the Asian Le Mans, it was a kind of new starter: big things are now coming. I can’t wait to come back in this great championship after a difficult year with the GTs, and endurance suits me well."

DCR's sixth seat was the last one to be filled in the seven-car LMP2 field for the 2018/19 WEC campaign.

G-Drive Racing will boost the field to eight for next month's Spa opener with an Oreca 07 for Roman Rusinov, Jean-Eric Vergne and a to-be-confirmed third driver.

2018 WEC LMP2 field:

No.	Team	Car	Drivers
28	TDS Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Loic Duval*  Matthieu Vaxiviere  Francois Perrodo
29	Racing Team Nederland	Dallara P217-Gibson	Giedo van der Garde  Frits van Eerd  Jan Lammers (Spa and Le Mans only)  Nyck de Vries (post-Le Mans)
31	DragonSpeed	Oreca 07-Gibson	Roberto Gonzalez  Pastor Maldonado  Nathanael Berthon (Spa and Le Mans only)  Anthony Davidson (post-Le Mans)
36	Signatech Alpine	Alpine A470-Gibson	Nicolas Lapierre  Andre Negrao  Pierre Thiriet
37	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Jazeman Jaafar  Weiron Tan  Nabil Jeffri  Afiq Ikhwan Yazid
38	Jackie Chan DC Racing	Oreca 07-Gibson	Ho-Pin Tung  Gabriel Aubry  Stephane Richelmi
50	Larbre Competition	Ligier JS P217-Gibson	Erwin Creed  Romano Ricci  Fernando Rees

* Duval may be forced to skip the Spa opener due to a DTM clash, but this is yet to be confirmed