Celis to join Perez for Friday FP1 in Mexico

40

Sahara Force India test driver Alfonso Celis will get another opportunity to take part in Formula 1 free practice this weekend.

He will take over the car normally driven by Estaban Ocon in Friday morning's session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. It means that he and Sergio Perez will make up a patriotic all-Mexican line-up to delight home fans.

Celis will then stand down and allow Ocon to resume his normal driving duties for the rest of the Mexican Grand Prix weekend.

It will be the third practice outing this season for the 21-year-old. He previously participated in practice sessions in Austria and Hungary.

Last year he enjoyed time in the car at six events including Bahrain, Italy, the United States and Abu Dhabi.

Force India may let Perez and Ocon fight after Mexico

Celis raced in the GP3 Series until 2015. He has now switched to World Series Formula V8 3.5. He's currently in fourth place in the championship, with one round remaining in Bahrain.

Force India team owner Dr Vijay Malya said that the team was looking forward to visiting Mexico this weekend.

“The Mexican Grand Prix is always a hugely important weekend for everybody in the team, but especially for Sergio," he said.

"We receive huge support from the fans and with so many guests and partners joining us at the track we have extra motivation of put on a strong show."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.