Rio Haryanto and Felipe Nasr will return to
GP2 action this week at the first official
GP2 post-season test, which is being held on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Circuit de Catalunya just outside of Barcelona, Spain.
Haryanto will be on familiar ground as he returns to his 2012 race seat at Carlin for the occasion, but this time it won't be Max Chilton alongside him as the young Briton is otherwise engaged this week in Abu Dhabi working as Marussia F1's test and reserve driver.
Instead, Carlin is taking a look at Brazilian driver Felipe Nasr, who caught the eye several times during his rookie season in
GP2 this year with a number of impressive drives for DAMS alongside series champion Davide Valsecchi, which helped propel DAMS to the team title.
"I'm delighted to be testing with Carlin this week," said Nasr, recalling their past success together winning the 2011 British
F3 title. "This will be my first chance to drive the Carlin
GP2 car though, and I'm very happy to be testing with a team I know so well.
"I'm excited to see how the car feels and to get back the behind the wheel of a
GP2 car," he added. "It already seems like too long since Singapore!"
Haryanto was also pleased to be back in action this week, although he indicated that he wasn't sure what his plans would be for his own sophomore season in
GP2 in 2013.
"There's quite a lot to get through and lots of decisions to be made about the future, but I'm excited to be driving the
GP2 car again," he said. “This year was a big learning curve for me, but I'm interested now to build on what I learnt over the season with this week's test," he continued, adding: "Hopefully we will have some dry weather and we'll be able to make the most of the two days."
Nasr's 2012 team DAMS have revealed on Twitter that their Barcelona test line-up will be headlined by 21-year-old Frenchman Arthur Pic, who has been competing in Formula Renault 3.5 Series for the last two years. In 2012, he picked up a race win in Moscow to go with a third place at Motorland Aragon, two podiums and two fastest laps over the course of the year.
Pic will be joined at DAMS on Tuesday by Nigel Melker, who spent 2012 in
GP2 with Ocean Racing Technology; and by Russian racing driver Sergei Sirotkin on the Wednesday. The 17-year-old Muscovite finished in third place in this year's Auto GP World Series.