Photo: TCR

Nicola Baldan, Aurélien Comte amongst additions to Paul Ricard entry

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Nicola Baldan and Aurélien Comte are amongst a number of new additions to the field ahead of the latest round of the TCR Europe season at Paul Ricard.

Baldan, who took seventh in the points last season, will join up with Comtoyou Racing to pilot an additional Audi RS 3 LMS being run by the Belgian team.

The Italian racer contested the opening event of the year with the Aggressive Team Italia squad in place of Levente Losonczy, scoring a best finish of 15th in the combined TCR World Tour meeting at Portimao.

Former title winner Comte meanwhile will be at the wheel of a Cupra Leon Competición entered by SP Compétition.

Comte scored his first win in TCR Italy with the team in the most recent event at Mugello, and would have picked up two victories over the course of the weekend had it not been for a five-second penalty for track limits in the second race.

On what will be the first outing in the series this season for SP Compétition, Sacha Bottemanne will make his TCR debut alongside his countryman.

Elsewhere, last seasons TCR Europe Rookie title winner Marco Butti makes his first appearance of the season in a second Target Competition-run Hyundai Elantra, whilst Ruben Volt will continue at the wheel of the Honda Civic Type R FL5 he raced in the World Tour meeting in Hungary last time out.

In total, 14 cars are set to contest the second French event of the campaign.