Christian Bakkerud

Christian Bakkerud
Nationality	Danish
Born	(1984-11-03)3 November 1984 Copenhagen
Died	11 September 2011(2011-09-11) (aged 26) Tooting, London
Retired	2010
Years active	2002–2010
Previous series
2009 2008 2007–08 2005–06 2004 2002–03	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters GP2 Asia Series GP2 Series British F3 Championship Formula BMW UK Formula BMW ADAC
24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	2009 – 2010
Teams	Kolles
Best finish	9th (2009)
Class wins	0

Christian Bakkerud (3 November 1984 – 11 September 2011) was a Danish racing driver, who competed in the 2007 and 2008 GP2 Series seasons, albeit hindered by a recurrent back injury. Prior to GP2 he competed in British Formula 3 and Formula BMW.

He was not related to rallycross driver Andreas Bakkerud.

Career

Formula BMW

Bakkerud competed in Formula BMW from 2002 to 2004, joining the British version of the series in the latter year after two seasons in Germany.

Formula Three

Bakkerud competed in British Formula 3 in 2005 and 2006. Having finished seventh in the championship in 2005, he improved to sixth place in 2006, and also scored his first series win for Carlin at Mugello in 2006 - arguably his career highlight. During this time he also competed in the Macau Grand Prix and the Ultimate Masters of Formula Three race.

GP2 Series

Bakkerud driving for Super Nova in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series season.

Bakkerud took part in the 2007 GP2 Series season for the DPR team, paired with Spaniard Andy Soucek. The season was disappointing, as Bakkerud failed to score any points. He also suffered back injuries, trapping nerves whilst racing on two separate occasions.

He moved to the Super Nova team for the 2008 GP2 Asia Series, reinforcing his unlucky reputation by retiring from all but three of the races. He remained for the 2008 GP2 Series proper, he suffered a recurrence of his back injury after a collision with Ben Hanley in the first race. He was replaced by Soucek whilst he recovered, and made his return to the cockpit at Monaco, after missing the championship round at Istanbul. He crashed at the start of the sprint race at Monaco, briefly going airborne after hitting Kamui Kobayashi. He did not suffer a recurrence of his back injury despite a heavy landing. However, the injury flared up once more following a testing session, and he withdrew from the rest of the season on medical grounds. He was replaced by Soucek.

DTM

Christian Bakkerud on the Hockenheimring 2009

In 2009, Bakkerud raced in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters in a two-year-old Audi A4 for Futurecom-TME.

Le Mans

Bakkerud also made his Le Mans début in 2009, driving an Audi R10 TDI privately entered by Colin Kolles's team. Paired with Christijan Albers and Giorgio Mondini, he finished ninth overall and in class. He returned to the event in 2010 with the same team and car, but on this occasion he, Albers and Oliver Jarvis failed to finish.

Retirement

Bakkerud retired from driving following the 2010 Le Mans race. In the year prior to his death, he worked as an import manager at a shipping company.

Death

On 10 September 2011, Bakkerud was involved in a car crash at the Tibbet's Corner roundabout at Putney Heath, near Wimbledon Common. He died a day later, in St George's Hospital, from his injuries. He was driving an Audi RS6 at the time of the accident; a police investigation followed. Travelling south on the A219 on Tibbet's Ride from Putney Hill, the car appeared to fail to negotiate a left turn into the large roundabout itself and instead travelled onwards and hit a thick, 1.5-metre (4.9 ft) high concrete barrier on the inside of the dual lane roundabout. The car then flipped over the barrier, fell down a steep 3-metre (9.8 ft) grass incline before smashing through the steel fence separating the bridleway and pedestrian/cyclist underpass routes. Crash investigators used yellow spray paint to mark skid and impact points on the road and where the car flipped over the barrier. The straight skid marks showed his car crossed from nearside to inside lane, as the road veered left at the roundabout entry, before it made a glancing blow on a heavy steel crash barrier prior to the barrier impact some six metres later.

Within a week a large number of flower bouquets were left at the location where the car came to rest. Police had also erected a yellow sign appealing for witnesses, which stated the accident occurred at about 6am on 10 September.

Formula One team HRT, led by Colin Kolles, added a tribute to Bakkerud to the livery of their cars during the 2011 Singapore Grand Prix weekend. McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton also paid tribute to Bakkerud by wearing a helmet featuring his initials.

Racing record

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Points
2007	DPR	BHR FEA 13	BHR SPR Ret	CAT FEA 12	CAT SPR Ret	MON FEA Ret	MAG FEA Ret	MAG SPR 12	SIL FEA Ret	SIL SPR 21	NÜR FEA Ret	NÜR SPR 18	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR DNS	IST FEA DNQ	IST SPR DNQ	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	SPA FEA 12	SPA SPR Ret	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR Ret	32nd	0
2008	Super Nova Racing	CAT FEA Ret	CAT SPR DNS	IST FEA	IST SPR	MON FEA 10	MON SPR Ret	MAG FEA	MAG SPR	SIL FEA	SIL SPR	HOC FEA	HOC SPR	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	VAL FEA	VAL SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR		27th	0
Sources:

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2008	Super Nova Racing	DUB1 FEA Ret	DUB1 SPR 11	SEN FEA Ret	SEN SPR 14	SEP FEA Ret	SEP SPR DNS	BHR FEA Ret	BHR SPR Ret	DUB2 FEA Ret	DUB2 SPR 9	27th	0
Source:

Complete DTM results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Pos	Points
2009	Kolles Futurecom	HOC 14	LAU 14	NOR 15	LAU DSQ	OSC	NÜR 13	BRH 16	CAT 17	DIJ Ret	HOC 12	19th	0
Sources:

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2009	Kolles	Christijan Albers Giorgio Mondini	Audi R10 TDI	LMP1	360	9th	9th
2010	Kolles	Oliver Jarvis Christijan Albers	Audi R10 TDI	LMP1	331	DNF	DNF
Sources:

References

• "Career statistics". driverdb.com. Archived from the original on 23 May 2006. Retrieved 24 January 2007.

External links

• Official website