Aston Martin Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll will race in the GT World Challenge Europe season opener at Paul Ricard next weekend during the extended break in the grand prix racing calendar.

The cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix in April, the result of ongoing military conflict in the Middle East, has created a five-week gap in the schedule between F1 races.

And it's that which Stroll will take advantage of when he races an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 run by the Comtoyou Racing team at the former French GP venue on April 12, which would otherwise have clashed with the Bahrain GP.

It will be his first race in GT machinery and comes at a time when Stroll is short of racing mileage in 2026; he is the only driver not to have been classified in any of F1's opening three grands prix - though he did finish the sprint race in China - amid Aston Martin and engine partner Honda's troubled and unreliable start to the season.

Stroll will share the Vantage with sometime Manor F1 driver Roberto Merhi and Aston Martin Academy driver Mari Boya, who is racing for Prema in Formula 2 this season.

They are entered in the Pro division and are among 59 line-ups on the entry list, which also includes a Team Verstappen Racing Mercedes - the car four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen will drive when he makes his Nurburgring 24 Hours debut next month.

The Paul Ricard round, a six-hour race, forms part of the GT World Challenge Europe's Endurance Cup series of events.

Though this will mark his GT racing debut, Stroll has contested two endurance races previously.

He raced a Riley for Chip Ganassi Racing at the Daytona 24 Hours in 2016, finishing fifth overall alongside Alex Wurz, Brendon Hartley and Andy Priaulx, and two years later returned to Daytona as part of Jackie Chan DC Racing's entry with a pair of LMP2 ORECAs.