Aston Martin considers Richie Stanaway for extra Le Mans car

Aston Martin Racing will have five Vantage GTEs at Le Mans following the first withdrawal from this year's race.

Stanaway, who as a member of the Lotus F1 young driver programme looks certain to be placed in the Porsche Supercup this year, will test for AMR in the US next week and is one of seven drivers in the frame to race the additional entry at Le Mans.

Aston's fifth entry was originally listed in the GTE Am class, but the team has been able to move the car into the GTE Pro division.

Stanaway and Grand-Am regular Dane Cameron will be given a try-out by Aston at Road Atlanta next week, when they will test AMR's second Vantage GTE along with its drivers for the Sebring 12 Hours later this month, Pedro Lamy, Billy Johnson and Paul Dalla Lana.

AMR team principal John Gaw told AUTOSPORT: "Richie is back to full fitness after his accident in Formula Renault 3.5 last year [at Spa] and is one of the drivers we thought we'd like to have a look at.

"He's not a recognised sportscar driver, but if you test 10 young single-seater guys, you're going to find two or three good GT drivers."

Gaw explained that the three drivers in Aston's additional Le Mans entry would come from the five testing next week and the two members of its new young driver development squad, Jonny Adam and Daniel McKenzie.

Expanding to a fifth car poses no problem for AMR, according to Gaw.

"We've previously had a very strong rally programme [at AMR parent company Prodrive]," he explained. "A lot of those people were involved with our GT1 wins at Le Mans in 2007-08 and are now coming back to work with Aston again."

AMR's fifth entry has moved up from first place on the GTE reserve list after the US Extreme Speed Motorsports Ferrari squad pulled its entry.

The withdrawal follows ESM's decision to move from the GT or GTE class to the LMP2 category for this year's American Le Mans Series.