Autosport has confirmed news that Anthony Davidson will join the Le Mans-winning Peugeot team for the this year’s 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hours.

The former grand prix driver was part of Aston Martin’s LMP1 line-up at Le Mans last season, finishing 13th overall in the #008 car with Darren Turner and Jos Verstappen.

He expressed his desire to continue racing sportscars at the time, and was today announced as part of the factory Peugeot team’s line-up after failing to land a drive in Formula 1 this year.

World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb had been linked with the drive, but Peugeot called up Ant after deciding Loeb’s schedule would be too busy.

“We had a number of options for this car, including Sebastien Loeb,” explained Peugeot Sport boss Olivier Quesnel. “He has reached a sufficiently high standard to be considered as a potential team member and we waited until the Swedish Rally before we took any decision.

“Every driver has to be 100 per cent committed to our programme and it eventually became clear than Sebastien’s schedule would be too tight. Anthony Davidson was available, he is quick, enthusiastic and very happy to be part of Team Peugeot Total.

“We needed two teams of sprinters and one of routier-sprinters while at the same time maintaining a sense of balance. It is my belief that we have three crews capable of victory at Le Mans.”

Ant will also share the with Wurz and Gene in the American Le Mans Series season opener, the Sebring 12 Hours, on March 20. Peugeot will field two cars in the event, with Bourdais, Lamy and Minassian sharing the other.

A nice bit of news for any of you who collect diecast models of Anthony’s race cars… Spark have released a 1:43 scale model of the #008 Gulf Racing Aston Martin LMP1 that Anthony drove at this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours with Darren Turner and Jos Verstappen.
It’s a resin kit – which basically means it may not be every bit as gorgeous as some of Minichamps finest work – but don’t worry; Spark have an excellent reputation so you can expect it to be a classy piece of work nonetheless.
Spark’s catalogue number for this is SPK1457.

Anthony and his team-mates Michael Krumm (GER), and Darren Turner (GB), drove the all-new Nissan GT-R to third place in the GT1 category at the fiercely demanding Spa 24 Hours, 25 – 26 July, in Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium.

Built to the 2010 FIA GT1 technical regulations, and taking part in selected rounds of the 2009 Championship as part of its development year, the NISSAN Motorsports-entered #35 NISSAN GT-R qualified an impressive 8th position on the grid and finished 13th overall, 3rd in the GT1 class – having run in 4th and 5th place for a full five hours during the night. The car’s 13th position meant it was the highest-placed car running to the 2010 FIA GT1 specification. Had it not been for the drivetrain problems at around 6.30am, which cost the team more than 15 places and at least one and a half hours in the pits to replace the necessary components, an overall podium finish would have been a real possibility. But once the car was back out on track at around 8.15am, the NISSAN GT-R continued to perform strongly, pulling itself back up the running order from 19th to 13th place.

Other than this one technical problem, the entire 24-hour race ran smoothly for the NISSAN GT-R, with neither the drivers, nor the team, making a single mistake. While losing an overall podium finish was a little disappointing, the team was delighted to have finished a 24-hour race at the car’s first attempt. For 2009, NISSAN MOTORSPORTS INTERNATIONAL (NISMO) appointed Gigawave MotorSport as its development and team partner, to assist in the development and homologation of the NISSAN GT-R for FIA GT1 in 2010, its launch season as a World Championship.

Anthony commented after the race:

“It’s never easy running a new car for 24 hours and the team has done an outstanding job to get it to the finish. Aside from one technical issue, everything ran like clockwork. I’ve really enjoyed being here, racing with the NISMO and Gigawave MotorSport team, and my team-mates have been fantastic. We really gelled. As for the car, reliability seems good. The NISSAN GT-R’s engine, in particular, has proven to be extremely robust. All three drivers have given it death over the weekend and it’s hung on in there!”