Alvaro Parente takes over car no. 19

Alvaro Parente

My Team Qi-Meritus.Mahara will field a new driver line up for the fourth round of the GP2 Asia season in Qatar with multi-Europe Championship winning Portuguese driver Alvaro Parente joining Italian driver Marco Bonanomi.

24-year-old Porto-born Parente will make his GP2 Asia debut in Qatar for the series' first ever night race. Parente who scored over twenty wins and forty podiums in his career also made a stunning start to his GP2 career in the opening round of the season at the Circuit de Catalunya, Parente won the feature race making him the first Portuguese driver to win in GP2 Series. There, Alvaro Parente led from start to finish, to claim victory ahead of Brazilian Bruno Senna and UAE’s Andreas Zuber. He eventually finished eighth in the drivers' championship.

Alvaro Parente commented, "I am very pleased to have the opportunity to drive for My Team Qi-Meritus.Mahara and to team up with Marco Bonanomi. I am excited about joining a strong and competitive team like My Team Qi-Meritus.Mahara, the teams results have shaken established teams with their performance. I'll do my best to show the team, Questnet, the sponsor, and the fans what I can do this weekend. I hope that my experience in GP2 and A1 Grand Prix will help. I hope to be fully ready for the first night race of the weekend in Qatar. I will spend most of the following days learning the circuit and quickly getting up to speed!"

Peter Thompson, team founder commented, "We would like to welcome Alvaro Parente to his first race with My Team Qi-Meritus.Mahara, and at relatively short notice he will certainly be thrown in at the deep end. My Team Qi-Meritus.Mahara is fighting to stay in the running with the top teams in the championship. For the Qatar race we have a strong driver line up that is hungry for success and will fight hard to continue scoring points."

Raad S. Abduljawad commented, "We are delighted to announce our new driver line-up. We will focus on the future, which looks very exciting indeed. Alvaro Parente is one of the most promising young drivers in the world and it will be very interesting to see him compete with us as part of our team. He scored his first ever GP2 win in his first race, so we know that his experience will be an extremely valuable one."

The fourth round of the GP2 Asia 2008-2009 season will take place at Losail International Circuit on 13-14 February, 2009. It will be the first time that GP2 Asia races in Qatar and at night. The season will consist of six, two race rounds ending in Bahrain on 26 April, 2009. The next round will be Sepang on 4-5 April 2009.