Indian Formula 3 racer Karun Chandhok had what he described as a “tricky weekend” at the Silverstone International Circuit in England, finishing 14th in torrential rain in round 3 of the championship.
During the qualifying sessions Karun showed good promise qualifying 12th and 14th. With gusts of wind up to 40 kilometers an hour, the conditions were not ideal for the drivers. “ Just 2 tenths of a second would’ve moved me into the top 6 – it’s that close. Unfortunately I was struggling to find time in the first sector of the lap and couldn’t really string a lap together when the tyres were at their best.”
Cold, Wet and windy weather welcomed the drivers on Sunday morning, making it the second consecutive wet race of the season. Karun made a good start but got held up by the Scotsman Andrew Thompson on the run down to Copse corner which allowed Clivio Piccione and Alvaro Parente through ahead of him. “ The two sectors of the Silverstone international circuit are quite different, in that the first sections consists of high speed corners and the second more of slow speed ones. I was really battling the car in the slower stuff and took a long time to be able to push in that part of the circuit. It’s quite ironic that in the dry qualifying I was slower in the in first sector but in the wet conditions in the race I was second fastest overall !!”. Karun’s laptimes towards the end were among the fastest out on the circuit but unfortunately the time lost early on was too much to close up.
The second race of the day was abandoned due to the deteriorating conditions. This race will be held at a later venue.
Karun’s compatriot Ajit Kumar, has been making progress. The South-Indian film star has been hampered by his filming commitments and has been unable to do the testing required. Speaking on Ajit, who was caught out in the treacherous conditions on lap 4, Karun said “He’s quite realistic about his chances and I’ve been helping him as much as I can. He’s slowly but surely making progress. Silverstone was a hard weekend for him in the wet. If he can get a break from filming and do some testing he’ll be closer to the pace for sure.”
On his own season the Madras born 20 year old said “ We’ve identified a problem with my driving style which is hurting us in qualifying. The team at T-Sport, are very experienced and we have planned an intensive test session later this week to try and sort this out. The next race weekend at Croft should be a lot better. It’s a circuit I won at last year and I thoroughly enjoy.”
Karun, who is backed primarily by JK Tyre along with the TATA Group, Kingfisher, Madhouse, UCAL Mikuni and Parx has his next two races at the Croft circuit in Yorkshire in two weeks time.
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