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Vitaly Petrov said that his experience of the Dubai Autodrome should give him an advantage at this weekend's GP2 meeting.

Russian Petrov finished fifth in the GP2 Asia Series opener in Shanghai before failing to finish in the sprint race in his Barwa Campos International car.

"I've had four races in Dubai, and anyone who has experience there should be at an advantage," he said.

"It will be very different for us than racing in China, where we've had very little experience and no data to use as a starting point.

"There are a couple of areas on the circuit in particular where a bit of knowledge puts you in a good position. For example, turns one and two flow into each other and after the first corner there is a very fast line if you can avoid going down hill in the braking zone.

"Similarly, before the long straight you have a long left corner with lots of bumps and reverse camber, which makes it very interesting.

"The Dubai circuit feels good in a GP2 car. You need quite a long time to learn the circuit and also to find the setup.

"It's technical and quite difficult in places, so it's very important to find the line, but we have some good setup information from there that we managed to get last season."

Roldan Rodriguez (Piquet GP) and Davide Valsecchi (Durango) won at the circuit last season. Rodriguez is leading the current standings, three points ahead of Javier Villa of Super Nova Racing.

Practice starts on Thursday, with qualifying on the same day and the races on Friday and Saturday.

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport