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Toro Rosso hands Sean Gelael four FP1 outings

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Toro Rosso has confirmed Formula 2 driver Sean Gelael will drive for the team in four of the next six FP1 sessions.

The Indonesian drove for Toro Rosso at the post-Bahrain and Hungarian tests earlier in the year. He will get the opportunity to drive the STR12 in FP1 at the Singapore, Malaysian, United States and Mexican rounds of the season.

The team has yet to confirm which full-time driver, Carlos Sainz or Daniil Kvyat, will be replaced during the sessions.

"What an amazing opportunity! First of all, I want to thank everyone who made this possible and most importantly for the belief they have shown in me,'' Gelael said. "It is an honour to be driving in Formula 1, starting in Singapore and Malaysia, two venues that are so close to my home country, Indonesia.

"I will use the opportunity to absorb like a sponge everything I can and learn as much as possible. I hope I can do a good job for Scuderia Toro Rosso and provide the team with good data from these important first sessions."

Team principal Franz Tost highlighted Gelael's impressive feedback and strong performances in the post-Bahrain and Hungarian tests as the reasons to why he has been given more track time.

"During the tests in Bahrain and Budapest Sean performed very well, helping the team in a very professional way, with a mature approach to the complex task of providing engineers with useful feedback. Everyone within the team was impressed by his performance, his technical understanding and his commitment.

"Therefore, we are happy that he will be driving the FP1 sessions for us at these four Grands Prix. I am sure he will do an excellent and useful job for the team."