DragonSpeed confirms Le Mans entry after Fittipaldi crash investigation

DragonSpeed has confirmed it will go ahead with its plans to enter a BR Engineering BR1 chassis to next month's 24 Hours of Le Mans and continue with its LMP1 programme despite concerns following a spate of incidents at Spa, including a crash that left Pietro Fittipaldi with two broken legs.

Fittipaldi went off at high-speed at Raidillon during qualifying for the FIA World Endurance Championship season-opener at Spa earlier this month following a fault on the car. The two other BR1s entered into the race - both run by SMP Racing - also suffered problems, including a high-speed flip for Matevos Isaakyan at the top of Eau Rouge.

The incidents prompted DragonSpeed team boss Elton Julian to put the brakes on the team's LMP1 programme until he had assurances the car would be safe to race, but confirmed in a video uploaded to Twitter on Friday the team would be going ahead with plans to race at Le Mans next month.

"I'm happy to announce that we’ve decided to continue with our LMP1 programme immediately, beginning with Le Mans test day," Julian said.

“The reason for this is because we’re satisfied with the findings regarding the incident Pietro had at Eau Rouge. Everything points to a very obvious problem that can and will be rectified by the manufacturers.

"This gives us the confidence that we can build a new car and be ready in time for the Le Mans test day. We’d like to thank BR Engineering and Dallara for affording us this opportunity to return so quickly.

"It has been a very difficult and arduous process to get to this decision. But we feel that we made the right one and we have to go for it."

The decisions ensures at least eight cars will be racing in the LMP1 class at Le Mans, with doubts still surrounding the two Manor-Ginetta entries after neither car was able to race at Spa earlier this month.