Having been forced to miss last weekends racing at Monza due to his persistent back injury, Christian Bakkerud is to make his return to the
GP2 series this weekend in Belgium.
The Dane has been carrying the injury since the Barcelona round earlier in the season and admitted last week that he had to get the problem sorted as his 'future career was at stake'.
Now, following intensive physiotherapy and specialist treatment Bakkerud has been declared fit for the Spa round, the penultimate event of this year's
GP2 championship calendar and the final
Formula 1 supporting event – the season finale in Valencia being a stand-alone meeting.
“I've been working hard to get back to race fitness for this weekend and the doctors have given me the all-clear, so I'm all set for a return to the driving seat,” he said. “With only two weekends left of this season, there's little time left to bring home points, so I need to get back on the pace as quickly as possible.
“I raced here last season in British
F3 in atrocious weather. I hope it's not going to be like that this weekend! However I did have a good run at that event with strong qualifying and a seventh place finish. It's a very challenging track and it should be great to drive in the
GP2 car, so hopefully I'll be able to put my experience to good use.”
Team boss David Price said he was pleased to welcome Bakkerud back into the team for the weekend and said he was hopeful of a solid weekend from both the Dane and team-mate Andy Soucek.
“It's good to see that Christian has recovered and can be racing with us this weekend,” he said. “With both drivers having raced here last season, we should be getting on the pace quickly and I hope that we can be qualifying well. It's a tough track with strong competition, so it's not going to be easy to grab the points we need, but we'll be giving it our best shot.”
