Prost gets France drive for Kyalami

The son of four-time world champion Alain Prost has been the French squad's rookie driver in recent months, and made his racing debut at Chengdu, where he qualified sixth and finished eighth in the first race.

Now Prost has been called up again for the South African event, as France's regular lead driver Loic Duval has a prior commitment.

"After a very positive outing in China the team's decided to put its trust in me again, which I'm very happy about," said Prost.

"It shows that it's satisfied with my work. My aim is to be on the pace right away and to be among the front-runners throughout the weekend."

Team boss Olivier Panis said he had no qualms about promoting Prost.

"Nicolas is already completely at home in our team," he said. "He's well prepared for this new challenge after a season as test driver with A1 Team France and a race a few months ago. We've already found an efficient way of working together, and we have every confidence in each other."