Maldonado to make Daytona 24 hours debut

Former F1 driver Pastor Maldonado has been confirmed to make his Daytona 24 Hours debut in January, as part of a two-car assault from the DragonSpeed team.

Maldonado will race in the ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 car, contesting the 2018/19 World Endurance Championship in the IMSA SportsCar Championship opener in late January.

The Venezuelan driver will be in the car with his regular WEC partner Roberto Gonzalez and a couple of other drivers, who are yet to be named.

"Roberto has been talking about going Daytona for a while and then decided to go ahead after the positive (second place) result at the Shanghai WEC round last month," team boss Elton Julian told Motorsport.com.

Maldonado is a Formula One race winner - with Williams - winning in 2012 at a dramatic Spanish Grand Prix.

The Venezuelan driver drove for Williams and Lotus in a five-year career in Formula One, but has now turned his attention to other areas of motorsport.