Hilmer to sit out Bahrain GP2 opener

Hilmer Motorsport will miss the opening round of the GP2 Series season in Bahrain this weekend, reducing the field to 24 entries.

The German team had taken part in pre-season testing with Nick Yelloly, Nigel Melker and Sergio Canamasas appearing in its cars. But on Wednesday morning GP2 announced that Hilmer would be absent from Sakhir.

Hilmer has spent two years in GP2 since taking over Ocean Racing Technology's entry for 2013. It was a race winner with Robin Frijns, Jon Lancaster and Adrian Quaife-Hobbs in its debut season but was only 12th in last year's standings, when it ran in Force India Formula 1 colours and featured Daniel Abt, Facu Regalia, Nicholas Latifi and Lancaster in its driver lineup.

The team also competed in GP3 last season but handed its entry to Campos Racing for 2015.

The GP2 entry for the Bahrain event was completed on Wednesday when MP Motorsport secured series regular Canamasas for the opening round, filling the final remaining vacancy in the field.

BAHRAIN GP2 FIELD
DAMS
Pierre Gasly, Alex Lynn

Carlin
Marco Sorensen, Julian Leal

ART
Stoffel Vandoorne, Nobuharu Matsushita

Racing Engineering
Jordan King, Alexander Rossi

Russian Time
Mitch Evans, Artem Markelov

Trident
Raffaele Marciello, Rene Binder

Campos
Arthur Pic, Rio Haryanto

MP Motorsport
Daniel de Jong, Sergio Canamasas

Rapax
Sergey Sirotkin, Robert Visoiu

Arden International
Norman Nato, Andre Negrao

Lazarus
Nathanael Berthon, Zoel Amberg

Status Grand Prix
Marlon Stockinger, Richie Stanaway

Originally on Autosport.com