So I'm back! And I can tell you that it's a really great feeling. Nearly two months away from a racing car is enough to send a driver mad, and I was really itching to get back in the cockpit before Hockenheim.
I didn't know until late on Wednesday evening that I was going to be driving, which is kind of late notice, but I had to get the all-clear from the doctors that my back would be strong enough to put up with the strains of driving a GP2 car, before they were happy to say yes.
They're pretty fast machines, you know, with a lot of grip and cornering speed and really stiff suspension, so you need to be in good shape to drive one hard over a race distance. The fastest cars are not far off the slowest F1 cars, so that gives you some idea of what we're doing.
Anyway, after doing 60 laps of Magny-Cours in a Formula Renault car, I was given a thorough check-over by the medics and they said I was ready to go. That was such a relief. Racing drivers are pretty impatient guys. We don't like to be waiting around for something to happen, even if we're injured and have to wait for stuff to heal up.