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Rast to miss WEC Fuji round after Audi DTM call-up

FIA GT World Cup Macau 2015 - Day 2

MACAU - NOVEMBER 22: Rene Rast of Germany reacts during the podium during the SJM Macau GT Cup-FIA GT World Cup event as part of the 62th Macau Grand Prix on November 22, 2015 in Macau, Macau. (Photo by Zhong Zhi/Getty Images for FIA)

Getty Imagesfor FIA

G-Drive Racing’s Rene Rast will miss the upcoming FIA World Endurance Championship round at Fuji Speedway in Japan after being called up for the DTM round at Hockenheim on October 15-16.

Rast confirmed on his Facebook page on Thursday that he would be replacing Matthias Ekstrom at Audi Team Abt Sportsline after the Swede elected to prioritize his rallycross commitments.

Ekstrom is in contention for the FIA World Rallycross title, leading the championship with three rounds remaining. The penultimate race of the year also clashes with the October 16 weekend, leaving Audi in need of a one-off replacement.

Audi may have opted to draft in GP2 racer Antonio Giovinazzi, who replaced Timo Scheider at Moscow last year, but the Italian driver has been signed to the final three races of the WEC season at Extreme Speed Motorsports as part of a new line-up.

As such, Rast will be the man to replace Ekstrom, having already made one appearance so far this year in DTM with Audi at Zandvoort.

Rast’s main commitment in 2016 has been in the WEC with G-Drive in the LMP2 class, racing alongside Roman Rusinov throughout the season and, most recently at COTA, Alex Brundle.

The German driver also made a one-off appearance in Formula E with Team Aguri at the Berlin ePrix in May, but did not secure a full-time seat in the series for season three.

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