Indian Formula 3 star Karun Chandhok had his best race weekend of the season at the Knockhill circuit in Scotland, with two very strong top 6 finishes to cap off what was all in all an encouraging weekend.
Things started brilliantly for Karun during the Friday practice sessions when he ended the first session of the morning fastest overall. Car and driver were working well together and right from the outset things looked good for the weekend. He ultimately ended the day 2nd fastest but just .04 slower than the Australian Will Power. This was indeed a shock to much of the pitlane who weren't used to seeing the 20 year old so far up the order.
The qualifying sessions were extremely eventful affairs. In the first session Karun laid down the gauntlet with a spectacular time of 47.8 seconds which put him on provisional position by almost half a second at the half way stage when the session was stopped to clear out a crashed car. When the session re-started, Karun improved his time straight away to a 47.7 despite passing another car on that lap, but then on the very next flying lap, he made a small mistake at the chicane, which sent him into the tyre barrier ending his session. As the track conditions and consequently laptimes improved, the Indian dropped down the order to an eventual 8th. The second qualifying session was even more exciting with finally the top 6 drivers being covered by just over 1 tenth of a second and the top 15 by just over half a second ! At the end of the day, Karun said "I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't have pole for the first one. It was looking really good at the half way stage and on my best lap I passed someone at the hairpin which cost me .38 of a second - enough to be on pole. The second one was a bit better and we ended up 5th but it's so close. To put it into perspective, a blink of the eye is about 3 tenths of a second which means that the top 15 are covered by less than two blinks of the eye !!"
After all the excitement of qualifying, the races proved to be fairly straightforward affairs, with Knockhill being too narrow and twisty to promote any overtaking. In the first race, Karun made a good start and was chasing the Scotsman Andrew Thompson hard on the opening lap. As the pair came towards the final hairpin to finish the lap, Karun attempted a move around the outside, which caused Thompson to outbrake himself and lose out to the Indian on the way out of the corner. Karun then got embroiled in a three-way scrap for 4th place with the Irishman Adam Carroll and the Carlin Motorsport driver, Clivio Piccione. But with overtaking opportunities limited and the drivers evenly matched, the order stayed the same for the remaining 24 laps with Chandhok eventually sitting right behind Piccione to take 6th position.
In race 2, the top 6 got away from the line in almost a synchronized fashion and the order stayed fairly static all through the race, with Karun pilling on the pressure on di Grassi for 4th place. It was in vain though as the Brazilian kept the door closed and didn't really give away any opportunities to be passed. At the flag Karun finished only half a second behind di Grassi in 5th and on the whole, very pleased with his weekend's work.
At the end of the weekend the T-Sport team owner Russell Eacott said of his young charge from Madras, "This weekend Karun just looked fired up from the first lap on Friday. I've been doing Formula 3 now for 18 years and this is undoubtedly one of the hardest and most competitive years ever, wherein on any given weekend up to 15 drivers have the potential to win. It's tough at the front, but the important thing is we're making progress. To be able to run at the front and mix it with the best F3 drivers in the world this weekend will do a world of good for his confidence and hopefully we can carry this form onwards to Snetterton in three weeks time."
Karun, who is backed by JK Tyres along with Kingfisher, Madhouse, TATA, UCAL Mikuni and Parx, agreed with Eacott " For sure this weekend has been confidence inspiring. We did a bit more testing between Croft and here and it showed. Hopefully we'll be able to sort our financial flows out and do a few more test days during this break and carry our current form to Snetterton."
Karun's compatriot, the film star Ajit Kumar had a mixed weekend in which he found it difficult to attack the unique Knockhill circuit. But his perseverance was rewarded when he inherited a 3rd place in the second race, albeit a lap down. Ajit's filming commitments mean that he will again be missing crucial testing before the Snetterton race. "I said to Ajit that somehow he has to try and come back for the tests at Snett. His mind is in two places at the moment and if he can do the two days scheduled at Snett then he should be a lot better on the race weekend."
