Dane celebrates tenth place as if it were victory.
Widely accepted as the unluckiest man ever to have set foot in a GP2 Series machine, Christian Bakkerud finally got something akin to a spot of good fortune as he finally saw the chequered flag in a GP2 Asia event.
"It almost feels like I have won a race today, having finally got out of this vicious circle I seem to have been in for such a long time," he commented, "This is a great platform for me to go into the GP2 main series in Barcelona and I can honestly say that I am really looking forward to it."
Bakkerud's miserable 'winter' campaign continued into the final round when he was forced out of the feature race after losing brake pressure, ending a promising fight through the field after battling with team-mate - and GP2 Asia race winner - Fairuz Fauzy and ART's Stephen Jelley.
"I made up a lot of places from the start, and was in twelfth place with 15 laps to go when it was obvious that I had a serious brake problem and it was too dangerous to continue," the Dane reflected, "I was a lot quicker than the guys in front and was attacking Karun Chandhok, but my brake pedal kept getting longer and longer and I had no alternative than to pit. We have since found out that a seal in the brake calliper had perished and air was leaking in."
Forced to start from close to the back of the grid by the GP2 rules, Bakkerud - who suffered with constant back problems in 2007 - then kept his head in race two and proceeded to haul himself up the order.
"The icing on the cake is that I drove myself into tenth position and overtook all the non-finishing drivers before they retired," he pointed out, "Funnily enough, I didn't make a fantastic start and only took one car, as I had decided before the race to definitely make the finish today, no matter what. But it all came together and I took them one by one. My best lap time came on the last lap too, so there is certainly nothing wrong with my fitness either!
"Now the weight is off my shoulders, I'm off to relax and do a bit of skiing at the biggest indoor slope in the world here in Dubai, before heading home and then on to Barcelona."
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