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Daniel De Jong to return to GP2 with Trident in Bahrain

Daniel De Jong will return to GP2 with Trident for this weekend's penultimate round of championship in Bahrain, after recovering from a broken vertebrae

The Dutchman made contact with Pierre Gasly on the outside of Blanchinont in the feature race at Spa-Francorchamps in August, which propelled him towards the tyre wall at speed.

The impact resulted in a fractured sixth vertebrae, and de Jong has received treatment at Formula Medicine in Italy since.

The 23-year-old is now ready to go racing again, but will be competing for Trident instead of Dutch team MP Motorsport, which already has deals in place for the Bahrain round with Nicholas Latifi and Rene Binder.

"I really want to say a big thank you to all of the FIA medical staff, the marshals trackside and all of those at Spa who helped to look after me so well after such a huge accident," said De Jong.

"Of course, I'd like to say a very special thank you to Dr Ceccarelli and his team at Formula Medicine as they have helped me recover and return to GP2 much quicker than we expected."

MP Motorsport team boss Sander Dorsman was relieved Trident was able to offer De Jong a seat as his squad had not expected its regular driver to recover so fast.

"We are all so happy to see Daniel back to full fitness and delighted our colleagues at Trident have been able to offer one of their seats to him," said Dorsman.

"None of us expected Daniel to make such a quick recovery, it surprised us all so much we had the deals with Rene and Nicholas already in place for next weekend.

"It's certainly going to be a unique experience with Daniel out there competing against the two MP cars but great to see him back."

Formula Renault 3.5 champion Oliver Rowland and Gustav Malja also return to GP2 in Bahrain.

Rowland will step in at Status Grand Prix, while Malja replaces the injured Robert Visoiu at Rapax.

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