GP2 race winner Christian Vietoris will be leaving hospital tomorrow following an operation to have his appendix removed yesterday.
Ho-Pin Tung – another driver from the Gravity Sports Management table, has replaced the Racing Engineering man for this weekend’s GP2 finale in Abu Dhabi.
Vietoris has had a solid début year in GP2, if at some times at a little frustrating. While speed was often present during the first half of the season, poor luck was also in abundance.
However, since the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, the German driver has picked up three podiums (including a victory) and a 4th place – these scores have helped propel Vietoris into 8th spot in the Championship standings.
In July, Christian was kind enough to take part in a Q&A session with the F1 Archive at which time he answered briefly about his difficult start to the season.
Tung, on the other hand has had an altogether more difficult season. The former DAMS driver struggled against team regular, Jerome d’Ambrosio, before suffering a fractured vertebra at the Hungaroring in August.
Vietoris’ Racing Engineering team mate, Dani Clos is fighting for 3rd overall in the GP2 Driver’s Championship; however a poor run of results in the last three race weekends has left the Spaniard some way adrift of his target.
Clos will start with something of a handicap though – the Spaniard, along with d’Ambrosio, Jules Bianchi, Sam Bird, Giedo van der Garde and new GP2 Series Champion Pastor Maldonado, has been given a ten-place grid penalty for tomorrow evening’s Feature Race.
I wish Christian all the best with his recovery and his eventual return to racing.
