Former F1 driver Kevin Magnussen set to race with Valentino Rossi at Spa

Following his exit from Formula One, Kevin Magnussen will return to race action as he is teaming up with seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi for the 24 Hours of Spa as part of BMW's five-strong factory assault on the world's biggest GT3 race.

BMW tops the Intercontinental GT Challenge manufacturers' and drivers' standings after finishing one-two at Bathurst. And while the 24 Hours of Nurburgring will be the next race before the Spa round, BMW has announced its driver line-up as the German marque is fully focused on securing a record-extending 26th overall victory one week later in the Ardennes.

Former F1 racer turned BMW works driver Magnussen will team up with multiple DTM champion and two-time Spa winner Rene Rast, with MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi, who finished second at Mount Panorama, will complete the line up.

"I am very happy to be back at the 24 Hours of Spa," said Rossi. "It is a great race – very demanding and difficult – on a fantastic and challenging track.

"The level of competition between the best GT cars, teams and drivers in the world is extremely high. I can’t wait to race there together with my great team-mates Kevin Magnussen and René Rast."

Theirs is one of three Pro entries run by Team WRT, which won IGTC's season opener with Kelvin and Sheldon van der Linde and Augusto Farfus.

Sheldon shares the #31 M4 GT3 Evo with Dries Vanthoor and Marco Wittmann, who was a winner with BMW in 2023, while the older VDL brother has Ugo de Wilde and reigning Intercontinental champion Charles Weerts for company in #32. The same combination won GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS's season opener at Paul Ricard at the start of April.

ROWE Racing can also call on a full-season GT World Challenge trio in the shape of Farfus, Raffaele Marciello and Jesse Krohn. But the three-time Spa winners - two of which it achieved with BMW - have a second car and stacked driver combination up its sleeve: Dan Harper, Max Hesse and Philipp Eng.

The event's official Prologue takes place next Tuesday and Wednesday before attention turns to 24h Nurburgring on June 19-22. Spa then takes centre stage one week later.