22/05/2007
NEWS STORY
David Price Racing (DPR) has fond memories of racing in Monaco last year with the team scoring its first points of the GP2 season at this challenging street circuit. In this year's championship drivers Andy Soucek and Christian Bakkerud are chasing top eight finishes to repeat history and put the DPR team on the points table.
Soucek and Bakkerud arrive in Monaco after a week away from the track. For Soucek this has been a time for debriefs and training in preparation for the Monaco event. Meanwhile Bakkerud has been recovering from a trapped nerve in his back which cost him a strong race result in Barcelona just over a week ago. The Dane is well on the way to being race-fit, after intensive treatment on the injury.
Bakkerud says, "I had some muscle bruising after the weekend, but I'm back into training with some swimming and it's loosening up now. 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."
It is the first Monaco race for the young driver, although he has previous street circuit experience, "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, so this will be new to me. 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 has high hopes for points this weekend, explaining, "DPR were very competitive in qualifying and the race last year, so the set up information and data should help us. 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."
He raced at this jewel in the crown of motor racing venues last year, competing in the World Series by Renault championship and says, "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."
David Price, Team Principal, DPR, adds, "I hope that our previous success here continues and that we can get off the mark in the points standings. There'll be plenty of gambling going on in Monaco this weekend, but one thing is for certain – we're going to be racing hard for points."