The GP2 Series tradition of having one race weekend where it can headline the bill will continue in 2007, but it is the season-opening return to Bahrain that will capture most people's attention.

The series culminated its opening campaign in the middle of the desert at Sakhir, where Nico Rosberg clinched the inaugural title, and GP2 returns to the Bahrain to begin its 2007 campaign, marking its first F1 support date outside of Europe.

The weekend is the first of ten where F1 will play chief back-up to the Formula One circus, returning to Europe to race at more familiar venues, interrupted only by the equally-traditional mid-season break while F1 jets off across the Atlantic for its Montreal-Indianapolis double-header. In that gap, the GP2 Series will conduct its only in-season group test, returning to its spiritual home at Paul Ricard, which will also stage two of the three pre-season sessions where teams will get to grips with recently-unveiled technical developments on the Dallara chassis.

Competition also resumes in France, albeit at Magny-Cours, and the series remains with Formula One until its penultimate race, at Spa-Francorchamps, in mid-September. Having started the 2006 campaign with a stand-alone event,
GP2 reverts to holding its final event apart from Formula One, returning to the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia on the same weekend as the grand prix circus heads east to Japan for its first race at Fuji since the 1970s.

Owing to the vagaries of the F1 schedule, the GP2 calendar has two pairs of back-to-back races - Magny-Cours and Silverstone, and Monza and Spa - but a month off between its first and second rounds, in Bahrain and Barcelona.

The series will also stage four exclusive test sessions before the end of the 2007 season, having confirmed dates at Ricard in February, mid-March and June, and another, at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya, in early March. The mid-season session comes just three races into the campaign, giving teams a chance to work on developments for the remaining eight outings of the year.

It has not yet been confirmed where the annual series launch will take place, but it is expected to coincide with one of the early tests rather than the opening round.

The full schedule is as follows:

February 21-22 Paul Ricard test
March 8-9 Barcelona test
March 15-16 Paul Ricard test

April 13-15 Bahrain International
May 11-13 Barcelona
May 24-26 Monaco
June 19-20 Paul Ricard test
June 29 - July 1 Magny-Cours
July 6-8 Silverstone
July 20-22 Nurburgring
August 3-5 Hungaroring
August 24-26 Istanbul Park
September 7-9 Monza
September 14-16 Spa-Francorchamps
September 28-30 Valencia