The Hindu : Karun on the right track

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 16, 2002

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

Karun on the right track

CHENNAI, April, 15. Karun Chandok confirmed his rising stature on the international auto racing scene by finishing fourth in the British F-3 series at Donington Park circuit, according to information reaching here.

Driving for T-Sport team, the junior wing of Carlin Motorsports, Karun, the 18-year old Chennai driver, had the best weekend starting off with a test session on Thrusday.

In the two qualifying sessions on Saturday, Karun improved his time to a 1:04.863s to qualify fourth, his best position so far and more importantly he was just two-tenths behind his team-mate, Clivio Piccione, and just over four-tenths behind pole man, Adam Carroll (1:04.458s).

After making the grade, Karun said, "I am pretty happy with my performance because as opposed to being six or seven tenths off Clivio, I'm only two-tenths off today, showing that we are definitely improving as we go along.''

On Sunday, Chandok, who is supported by JK Tyres, Castrol, ICSA Logistics, Amaron, TRAXX, and UCAL Mikuni, had a bad start to the day when on lap three of race one, he got hit on his rear left tyre by Billy Asaro, causing a puncture which led to his first retirement of the year.

The second race was a different story as Karun made a good start, moved into the fourth place, a position he had to defend for every one of the 20 laps of the race.

Karun's race engineer, Alan Woodhead said, "This weekend, Karun has really come of age as a driver. He looks more like an F-3 driver and is now a lot closer to the pace of the front-runners. Overall, I am pleased with the weekend and now that we have finished sixth, fifth and fourth, the next logical step from here is a podium position.''

The next race on the calendar is on May 5 at Silverstone Grand Prix circuit.

The results:

Race-1: 1. Adam Carroll (21:58.565), 2. Clivio Piccione (22:11.748), 3. Stephen Colbert (22:12.781), 4. Gavin Smith (22:26.733), 5. Jasper Carlsen (22:33.996). Karun Chandok - DNF.

Race-2: 1. Adam Carroll (21:56.199), 2. Clivio Piccione (22:10.686), 3. Billy Asaro (22:14.337), 4. Karun Chandok (22:23.418), 5. Jasper Carlsen (23:23.722).

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