Christian Bakkerud (3 November 1984 – 11 September 2011) was a Danish racing driver, who competed in the2007 and2008GP2 Series seasons, albeit hindered by a recurrent back injury. Prior to GP2 he competed inBritish Formula 3 andFormula BMW.

Bakkerud was not related to rallycross driverAndreas Bakkerud.

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

Bakkerud competed inBritish 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 theMacau Grand Prix and theUltimate Masters of Formula Three race.

Bakkerud took part in the2007 GP2 Series season for theDPR team,^[1] paired with SpaniardAndy 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.^[2]

He moved to theSuper Nova team for the2008 GP2 Asia Series, reinforcing his unlucky reputation by retiring from all but three of the races.^[3] He remained for the2008 GP2 Series proper, he suffered a recurrence of his back injury after a collision withBen Hanley in the first race.^[4] He was replaced by Soucek whilst he recovered,^[5] and made his return to the cockpit at Monaco, after missing the championship round atIstanbul. He crashed at the start of the sprint race at Monaco, briefly going airborne after hittingKamui Kobayashi. He did not suffer a recurrence of his back injury despite a heavy landing.^[6] 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.^[7]

In 2009, Bakkerud raced in theDeutsche Tourenwagen Masters in a two-year-old Audi A4 forFuturecom-TME.

Bakkerud also made hisLe Mans début in2009, driving anAudi R10 TDI privately entered byColin Kolles's team. Paired withChristijan Albers andGiorgio Mondini, he finished ninth overall and in class. He returned to the event in2010 with the same team and car, but on this occasion he, Albers andOliver Jarvis failed to finish.

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.^[8]

On 10 September 2011, Bakkerud was involved in a car crash at the Tibbet's Corner roundabout at Putney Heath, nearWimbledon Common. He died a day later, inSt George's Hospital, from his injuries. He was driving anAudi RS6 at the time of the accident; apolice investigation followed.^[8][9] Travelling south on the A219 on Tibbet's Ride fromPutney 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 steelcrash barrier prior to the barrier impact some six metres later.^{[citation needed]}

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 teamHRT, led by Colin Kolles, added a tribute to Bakkerud to the livery of their cars during the2011 Singapore Grand Prix weekend.^[10]McLaren driverLewis Hamilton also paid tribute to Bakkerud by wearing a helmet featuring his initials.

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

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:[12][13]

• "Career statistics".driverdb.com. Archived fromthe original on 23 May 2006. Retrieved24 January 2007.

• Official website

• 1984 births
• 2011 deaths
• GP2 Series drivers
• Danish racing drivers
• Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters drivers
• Formula BMW ADAC drivers
• Formula BMW UK drivers
• British Formula Three Championship drivers
• 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers
• GP2 Asia Series drivers
• European Le Mans Series drivers
• Asian Le Mans Series drivers
• Road incident deaths in London
• Carlin racing drivers
• Sportspeople from Copenhagen
• Audi Sport drivers
• Kolles Racing drivers
• Super Nova Racing drivers
• David Price Racing drivers
• Team Rosberg drivers

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2018
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from October 2011