Herbert to drive for factory Audi team at Le Mans.

Britain's Johnny Herbert has been recruited by Audi to drive one of its factory-entered sportscars in the Le Mans 24 Hours - the legendary annual endurance motor race which the German manufacturer is bidding to win for a third consecutive year.

Herbert won the Le Mans race in 1991 and teams-up with Rinaldo Capello and fellow Italian Christian Pescatori at Le Mans on 15-16 June with the similar Infineon Audi R8 of former British Touring Car Champion Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen and Emanuele Pirro - the 2000 and 2001 Le Mans race winners for Audi.

Herbert said: "I'm delighted Audi has given me another realistic opportunity to win what is arguably the world's toughest and most famous motor race. The Infineon Audi R8 finished 1-2-3 at Le Mans in 2000 and its two-car entry netted a 1-2 last year so the Audi is without doubt the car to be driving in such a gruelling marathon."

Audi has dominated endurance sportscar racing over the past two years. Its R8 sportscar has achieved 20 victories from 24 race starts and only once retired due to a mechanical problem. In addition to its double Le Mans race success, Britain's Allan McNish and Pirro won the American Le Mans Series titles for Audi in 2000 and '01 respectively while Stefan Johansson, of Sweden, won the 2001 European Le Mans Series in a British-based "customer" Audi R8.

"The Audi R8 is simply a wonderful car," added Essex born Herbert. "You can drive it on the limit from the first to the last lap which is exactly what is required at Le Mans nowadays. The race is essentially a round-the-clock sprint in which the winning car, depending on the weather, clocks up more miles than the winner of the Formula One World Championship does in an entire season."

The popular British driver will make his début for the two car factory Audi squad in the Sebring 12-Hours on 16 March, the opening round of this year's ALMS championship in America.

Oxon-based Herbert drove for the American Audi "customer" Champion Racing team at Le Mans and in six ALMS races last year. Meanwhile a further Le Mans victory for Biela/Kristensen/Pirro would add another chapter in to motorsport history as never before has an unchanged driver combination ever won the French endurance classic three times in a row.

"Our aim is very ambitious," added Audi Head of Sport Dr Wolfgang Ullrich. "We want to win the Le Mans race for the third time in a row in order to finally get the historic trophy back to our factory in Ingolstadt."

Detailed improvements are planned for the Audi R8. "The car and the new FSI engine still have potential that we want to exploit," continued Dr Ullrich.

Herbert replaces Laurent Aiello in the Audi "works" team because the Frenchman will concentrate on the German touring car series (DTM). After the Sebring season opener, Audi Sport North America contests the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) with their proven driver line-ups of Biela and Pirro plus Capello and Kristensen.

Furthermore it is likely that Herbert will team-up with Andy Wallace in a Champion Racing "customer" entered 2001-specification Audi R8 for the remaining ALMS races.