Liuzzi to race at Nurburgring

Christian Klien will have to wait a little longer to resume race duties as Red Bull has confirmed that Tonio Liuzzi will partner David Coulthard at the European Grand Prix this coming weekend. Klien competed in the first three races of the season then took over the third driver role while Liuzzi had his chance.

Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Photo by xpb.cc.

Klien had hoped to be back in the race seat at the N?rburgring but Liuzzi, who has also had three races to date, will remain behind the wheel for the next race. Klien will return to competition at the Canadian Grand Prix in early June.

"After having evaluated both drivers performance during their three race stints, the team have decided that Tonio will continue as race driver at the next GP in Germany," said sporting director Christian Horner.

"Christian will then be back in the race car from Montreal having made a valuable contribution to the team in the last 3 races as third driver."

Klien scored points in two of his three races early in the season, seventh in Australia and eighth in Malaysia. His car failed on the grid for the Bahrain GP with an electronic problem.

Liuzzi got promoted into a point at his first race at Imola when Toyota's Ralf Schumacher dropped out of eighth due to a time penalty and both BARs were disqualified. He failed to finish in Spain and Monaco, spinning off in the former and suffering tyre problems in the latter.