Sunday 30 March at 13:50 : 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve will attend the Bahrain grand prix next weekend.

The 37-year-old French-Canadian, who lost his BMW Sauber seat in 2006 and headed to North America to begin an abortive NASCAR career, has been signed up to contest the last two rounds of the Dubai based Speedcar stock car series.

The penultimate round takes place as a formula one support event at Sakhir next weekend, before the series - featuring identical 620 hp cars - wraps up in Dubai a week later.

"Speedcar will give me more road racing experience with this kind of car which will be useful in future NASCAR road courses events, and it's also a great excuse to meet race fans," Villeneuve is quoted as saying in a statement.

He joins fellow ex-F1 stars in the series, including Jean Alesi, Johnny Herbert, Stefan Johansson, JJ Lehto and Gianni Morbidelli.