The 7th and 8th races of the 2009/2010 GP2 Asia series take place this weekend, at the 6.3km Sakhir race circuit in Bahrain, alongside the opening round of the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship.
The last time that the series raced at the Sakhir track was at the end of February, alongside the Australian V8 Supercars Championship, and on a slightly shorter configuration compared to this weekend's track configuration.
This weekend will see the GP2 competitors, as well as the Formula One stars, use a new section of track, which starts just after Turn 4 and comes back into the main track just past the original turn 5.
Last time out, the opening race of the weekend saw the crowning of the new GP2 Asia Champion, iSport's Davide Valsecchi. Valsecchi won the opening race after managing the car and the tyres and took the lead with a few laps remaining.
The second race, the sprint race, saw iSport International crowned 2009/2010 Teams Champions, even with an opening lap retirement for new Drivers Champion Davide Valsecchi. Team mate Oliver Turvey secured the single point which secured the title, while the race win went to Charles Pic, his maiden GP2 win and Arden International's first win of the 4 weekend series.
The final 2 races will see the runners up spots filled, and with a number of drivers still able to secure second overall – even Alvaro Parente in 16th can finish second with a double win and a whole lot of bad luck for the drivers above him. Current second place driver, DPR's Giacomo Ricci is in pole position to secure second overall, but a strong weekend from the Racing Steps Foundation backed iSport driver Oliver Turvey, Javier Villa of Arden International or the Meritus car of Luca Filippi could see Ricci drop down.
Three drivers are returning to the series for the final races of 2009/2010 – Luiz Razia in at Rapax Team, Rodolfo Gonzalez replaces Sergio Perez at Barwa Addax Team while Dani Clos rejoins the Trident team alongside Plamen Kralev.
In the teams Championship, the battle for second is still wide open, with Arden International, DPR and MayalsiaQi-Meritus.com in pole position to challenge for the runners up spot behind iSport.
The races this weekend will be televised, race 1 being shown as a re-run on Saturday at 16.30 GMT, while the 8th and final race of the Championship is being shown live at 8.45am on Sunday morning. The final race is the 20 lap sprint race.
This weekend will also see the final races for the original GP2 cars, the cars that carried Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock to considerable success and into Formula One.
