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The inaugural weekend of the new Formula E Championship in Beijing will begin early with a short shakedown session on Friday.

The organisers have scheduled a 20-minute session on the 2.1-mile Beijing circuit at 3:30pm local time (8:30am BST) ahead of the start of the meeting proper on Saturday morning.

Each driver will be able to do no more than five laps, split between the two cars he or she will race at the end of the day on Saturday.

A spokesman for Formula E said: "This is our first race and we want teams to be able to iron out any gremlins.

"Because we run one-day meetings, we don't want to risk someone having a problem in first practice and their weekend being effectively over."

AUTOSPORT understands that there is pressure from the teams to make the shakedown test part of each Formula E event.

This week's AUTOSPORT magazine includes a comprehensive Formula E preview, with more to come on AUTOSPORT.com on Friday



Follow all the action from the inaugural race as it happens with AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live from 9am UK time on Saturday