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Ex-Formula 1 driver Christian Klien has been drafted into the ByKolles LMP1 squad at the last moment for this weekend's Silverstone World Endurance Championship round.

The Austrian had been due to drive for Team SARD Morand before its withdrawal.

He was called up to race the Austro-German ByKolles team's CLM-AER P1/01 on Friday morning because Simon Trummer has yet to arrive from Switzerland as a result of Thursday's French air traffic control strike.

Klien told AUTOSPORT: "I was here anyway and I got a call at 7:30 this morning when I was still in bed asking if I was available.

"I've talked to the SARD people and Benoit [Morand] and they said yes, so I thought, why not?"

Klien, who contested three grands prix for the HRT F1 team run by Colin Kolles in 2010, will share the CLM with Vitantonio Liuzzi and, upon his arrival, Trummer.

The Morand LMP2 squad withdrew its two Morgan-Judd/BMW EVOs on Wednesday after a projected sale of the team that would have guaranteed its WEC campaign failed to go through in the required timeframe.