Danish racer Christian Bakkerud will be forced to miss the second event in the GP2 main series at the Istanbul Park circuit in Turkey on May 10th/11th due to the injury he sustained whilst contesting the Spanish Grand Prix GP2 event. However, Bakkerud has been advised by Doctors that his absence from the race tracks will be temporary and that he should be cleared to drive in Monte Carlo on May 24th and 25th.

Bakkerud comments - "The diagnosis from the team of Doctors and Specialists who have been treating me in Austria is that I have not had a re-occurrence of the disc problem which kept me out of the cockpit on several occasions last year. Instead I incurred severe spinal bruising as a result of two recent incidents, one in Dubai and the second one during the race in Spain where contact with another car pitched me up in the air and with consequent heavy landings which then inflicted the bruising. Whilst I'm obviously very disappointed to be missing the Istanbul race again I am relieved it's not a re-occurrence of last year's problem and I feel very confident that I will be fully fit for Monaco."

The Dane's medical team reports that he is making good progress and Christian returns to Austria this week for more intensive work on his injury and physical training sessions.