Only one driver to test for DAMS

French outfit DAMS is going to rely exclusively on Nicolas Lapierre in this week's two-day GP2 testing session on the Paul Ricard race track is southern France, due to the fact that their second driver, Kazuki Nakajima, will focus on his Formula 1 duties. The Japanese GP2 rookie has been called up at the last minute by British Formula 1 team Williams in order to allow him to participate in Friday practice for the first 2007 Grand Prix in Australia this weekend. Frenchman Lapierre will finalize set-up work for DAMS before the first race in Bahrain.

22-year old Nakajima (the son of famous Japanese driver Satoru Nakajima, who raced in Formula 1 in the late 80s and early 90s) is part of the Toyota young driver development programme this year and he was named third and reserve driver of the Toyota-powered Williams F1 team.

In addition to his F1 commitments, Nakajima is set to compete a full season in the International GP2 series with DAMS. The 2007 season will be only his second year of racing in Europe after racing in the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2006.

Le Mans-based DAMS team (an acronym for Driot-Arnoux Motorsport) was founded in 1988, by Jean-Paul Driot and former Formula 1 Grand Prix winner René Arnoux. Among their current operations in single-seater racing is running a GP2 team and servicing three team in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport series.

DAMS-run Team France won the title of the inaugural title of the A1GP in 2006 thanks to stellar performances from GP2 drivers Alexandre Premat and Nicolas Lapierre.