London: The Sepang circuit will reverberate to the sounds of Formula One cars a week prior to the Malaysian Grand Prix. The circuit is to host an official F1 test for the first time after the Australian season-opener in March.

Bridgestone, who are the sole tyre suppliers this season, confirmed on Monday that they would be providing tyres for the rare session in the Far East from March 27-29.

All 11 teams, who have set up a joint committee which will coordinate limited testing during the season, asked that a Malaysian test be pencilled in after the March 18 race in Melbourne in order to avoid the expense of shipping freight from Australia to Europe and then back to Malaysia.

This year's Malaysian Grand Prix on April 8 comes three weeks after Melbourne, as opposed to previous years, which was held after just a fortnight.

Circuit spokesman Azhar Ghazali told sources, "Almost all of the teams are based in Europe and it would make sense for them to commit their personnel to test the cars in Sepang instead of flying them back to the other side of the globe."