David Price Racing should be at full strength for the third round of the
GP2 Series in Monaco this weekend, having received the good news that Christian Bakkerud is on the road to recovery following his Barcelona back problems.
DPR has fond memories of racing in Monaco last year, after scoring its first points of the season, and Bakkerud and team-mate Andy Soucek will be chasing top eight finishes on Saturday in an attempt to repeat history. Both arrive in Monaco after a week away from the track and, while Soucek has had time for debriefs and training in preparation for the event, Bakkerud has been recovering from the trapped nerve in his back which cost him a strong race result in Spain.
“I had some muscle bruising after the weekend, but I'm back into training with some swimming and it's loosening up now," the Dane revealed, "There's no doubt that I'll be back for the Monaco race and I don't expect any recurrence of the problem. It was just one of those things that happen, but I've recovered now - thankfully.”
Bakkerud will be making his Monaco debut this weekend - a brief karting visit aside - but has previous street circuit experience that he intends to call on.
“I've always done quite well at street races, having done Macau and Pau, which are similar to Monaco, but I've only driven this track on the PlayStation," he admitted, "It's one of the places that every racer wants to have driven, with so much history, glamour and glitz. It's a very special place.”
Soucek, meanwhile, has raced in the Principality before, having been a part of last season's World Series by Renault round there, and has high hopes of scoring points this weekend.
“DPR were very competitive in qualifying and the race last year, so the set-up information and data should help us," he noted, "We've had four tough races so far and we really need to change it around. I'm going to be aiming high for Monaco. It's quite a difficult track, with the walls very close to you at times, but I did enjoy it. We have two practice sessions this weekend so that will be good for us, and we should be able to use it to our advantage to score our first points.”
