Carlin’s GP2 Series team will be back in action this weekend as the 2015 season finally gets underway at the Bahrain International Circuit. Staying with the team for a second consecutive season, Julian Leal will hit the track in the number three car and will be joined by Dane Marco Sorensen in the SaxoBank liveried number four car.

Both Leal and Sorensen completed strong pre-season testing, although the Bahrain circuit has different significance for the Carlin drivers. Having taken two podium finishes at the circuit last year, Bahrain is a favourite venue for the Colombian driver. Sorensen meanwhile will make his racing debut in Bahrain this weekend, having visited the circuit for the first time earlier this month for official testing.

Carlin will run numbers three and four on the team’s cars this season after finishing second in the 2014 Teams’ standings. Carlin claimed 12 podiums last year including four race wins thanks to now Sauber F1 driver Felipe Nasr who was a championship contender throughout the season.

Speaking about the season ahead Leal said, “I’ve have been waiting to get in the car again and looking forward to the season starting. It’s my second year with Carlin and I think we can do a good job; we have good experience together – we know where we need to improve and where we are strong. For this weekend I hope to start in the best way. Last year we started with two podiums, we hope to do our best and get some strong results to start the season again.”

Team mate Sorensen added, “I’m very excited to finally be heading into a race weekend again. I think we’ve prepared for the season well; testing has been encouraging. We’ve shown we’ve got good pace and our race pace in particular I think is going to be strong. Bahrain isn’t a track I’ve raced at before but having tested here a couple of weeks ago I know the track well enough for that not to be a disadvantage.”

Practice will take place at 1200 local time on Friday, with plenty of time to analyse data before qualifying at 2000 under the circuit’s floodlights.   Race one of the season will kick off at 13.10 on Saturday with race two concluding the weekend’s running at 1415 on Sunday afternoon.