Thomas Laurent is a late replacement for Kyle Tilley in the #17 IDEC Sport Oreca 07 Gibson for this week’s 2021 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Tilley has stood down after suffering an injury in last weekend’s NASCAR Brickyard 400, this the second consecutive year at Le Mans that the squad has been forced into a late line-up change after the 2020 squad saw Dwight Merriman forced out pre-race after injury in a qualifying session crash with Patrick Pilet the late replacement.
For Laurent, now 23 years old, the change sees him set to drive at Le Mans for the fifth consecutive year, including 2nd overall and a class win on his debut in 2017 with Jackie Chan DC Racing.
He’ll be joined in the #17 by Ryan Dalziel and Dwight Merriman, as an LMP2 Pro-Am squad, the team set to start race week with the car rebuilt around a new tub following a Test Day shunt that saw Merriman reportedly hit by the #31 Team WRT Oreca.
