Kimi Raikkonen will get his first taste of a Formula One car ahead of his comeback season in 2012 later this month, after reports confirmed that the Finn would sample a 2010-spec Renault at Valencia on January 23rd-24th.
Raikkonen is making his F1 return with the newly-renamed Lotus F1 Team in the 2012 season, in the first year of a new two-year deal.
The 2007 champion will return to F1 action this year for the first time since leaving the sport at the end of 2009.
And reports on Monday confirmed that he would get his first taste of Renault F1 machinery in a 2010-spec car at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia later this month.
The two-day test run will take place in a two year old R30 in order to get around F1's current test restrictions.
Currently, teams are only allowed a set number of days of track testing per season.
The Finn will not be allowed to run on race-specification Pirelli tyres during the test, in order to remain within the current tyre rules.
Instead, he will run on the same specification of Pirelli tyre used in demo runs.
Raikkonen will then likely get a maximum of six days of testing behind the wheel of the new 2012 Lotus machine at the three scheduled pre-season tests in February and March.
Raikkonen attended a seat fitting at the Renault team's HQ last week as part of his preparations for his return.
He will be paired with Romain Grosjean for his comeback season.
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