The FIA World Endurance Championship has announced the preliminary entry list for the 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps 2019.

There are no major surprises on the list, which consists of 35 cars.

We have the 34 full season cars, joined by G-Drive Racing #26 with their ORECA 07 Gibson LMP2 car, which is usually doing the European Le Mans Series – but will also participate at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. They will have Jean-Eric Vergne, Job van Uitert and Roman Rusinov behind the wheel, just like in their ELMS programme.

Rebellion Racing is back with their usual line-up with Neel Jani, Bruno Senna and Andre Lotterer in the #1 and Nathaniel Berthon, Thomas Laurent plus Gustavo Menezes in the #3. Lotterer is back from his Formula E duties, which places Mathias Beche back on the bench once again.

Bykolles Racing Team #4 is back in the field with their new Gibson engine. Only Tom Dillmann has been entered with the car, but it would be a surprise not to see Oliver Webb joining him – he usually does that, when the car is entered.

DragonSpeed #10 has once again replaced Renger van der Zande with James Allen, since van der Zande will be racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac #10 at Mid-Ohio Sportscar Course during the same weekend.

TDS Racing #28 has replaced Loic Duval with Normal Nato. Duval will be racing for Audi Sport in DTM at Hockenheim on the same weekend.

We have a potential championship deciding race coming up with Porsche having really good cards on their hands to claim the title – not only in the Manufacturer’s Championship but also the Drivers Championship. There are currently four GTE Pro teams in the running for the Drivers title. #92 with Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre has a 25 points lead to their teammates Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz in #91, while the defending World Champions Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado ABSOLUTELY have to gain at least 6 points on Christensen/Estre, so stay in the fight. It’s even worse for Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK #66 drivers Stefan Mücke and Oliver Pla, who ABSOLUTELY has to finish at least second at Spa Francorchamps, while Christensen/Estre will have to retire, for them to still be in the title fight at Le Mans.

Toyota Gazoo Racing only has to finish ahead of Rebellion Racing with one of their cars, to have secured the Championship. But there is still an internal fight between the two TS050 Hybrid cars for the Drivers Title, but with a slight advantage to #8 with Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso.

We need slightly bigger sensations in GTE Am and LMP2, to be able to crown the champions at Spa Francorchamps – but you have to pass the chequered flag to get points. If you retire in the final corner, on the final lap, there will be zero point for the car.

The 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps will be run on Saturday 4 May 2019.