The Bridgestone-supported GP2 Series heads to Turkey for its second round, where two races on Bridgestone's hard compound GP2 slick racing Potenza will be played out on the challenging and diverse Istanbul circuit, scene of the Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix on 9-11 May.

The hard compound Bridgestone Potenza has already been used once before this season, in Barcelona, where Alvaro Parente (Super Nova) and Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS) both won a race. Turkey will mark the last time this season that the hard compound is used.

Istanbul is a difficult track to master. There is a mix of gradient and a range of different radius corners as well as long straights and high speed sections. It is a recently constructed wide track with a layout which allows a variety of lines into corners, aiding overtaking. It is the only circuit used by GP2 this season to be run in an anti-clockwise direction, meaning the tyres on the right-hand side of the car will get a tougher workout than usual.

The track can be characterised as one that is challenging for the tyres given the high speeds and layout. The ambient and track temperatures should be lower than those experienced last season as Turkey is visited far earlier than previously. However, the heavy braking and high G-forces from the corners mean a lot of heat is generated by the tyres themselves.

In 2007, Lucas di Grassi (ART) and Timo Glock (iSport) took the race wins. di Grassi's win came in the Saturday feature race whilst Glock's win came in the sprint race on Sunday.

Heading to Turkey, Parente leads the drivers' championship on 11 points, with Bruno Senna (iSport) equal on 11 points, but without a race win. Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering) has nine points for third in the standings. The teams' championship is led by Super Nova on 11 points, with iSport also having the same points tally. Racing Engineering are in third position with 10 points.

Hirohide Hamashima - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development: "Turkey is a track with a very high speed corner at turn 11 and a very long corner at turn eight which encourage a high rate of tyre wear and this is why we bring our hardest compound tyre. The track is anti- clockwise which means the right tyres will be under more stress at this circuit as opposed to the left tyres at all clockwise circuits. Of course, drivers will also experience greater stresses on their necks as they are not accustomed to running in this direction. Some of the new circuits on the GP2 calendar provide less opportunity to overtake but Turkey is an exception as it provides opportunities at turn one, turn 11 and turn 12. It will be very interesting to see how fast the new GP2 / 08 car is at this track."