By alley - Jun 29, 2016, 4:01 AM ET

GP2: ART picks Binder as Matsushita stand-in

GP2 champion team ART Grand Prix has picked series stalwart Rene Binder to replace the banned Nobuharu Matsushita for this weekend's races at the Red Bull Ring.

Honda protege Matsushita was given a

one-race suspension

for his handling of restarts while leading in Baku earlier this month. Series officials judged that Matsushita had driven "in an erratic manner," triggering multi-car crashes.

Austrian Binder contested 70 GP2 races between making his debut with Lazarus midway through the 2012 season and completing the final part of last year with MP Motorsport.

He switched to Formula V8 3.5 with the Charouz-run Lotus team this year.

"First of all I want to thank ART Grand Prix for this great opportunity to drive their car at my home race in Spielberg," said Binder. "I like GP2 but I still have some unfinished business with it so I always said that if there was a chance to get a drive with a top team within the season I would not hesitate to take the challenge."

The 24-year-old's best GP2 result was sixth in the 2013 Monaco sprint race.

He participated in some of pre-season testing with Carlin this year before beginning his FV8 3.5 programme, in which he has taken two podium finishes so far.

Originally on Autosport.com