The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Forgettable weekend for Karun

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 08, 2004

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

Forgettable weekend for Karun

CHENNAI, JUNE 7. Not everything was smooth sailing (or should we say smooth driving?) for India's teenage driver, Karun Chandok, competing in the F-3 races at Sneterton (UK).

That things were looking ominous for him was evident even during Friday's practice session when a fumbled gear change caused severe damage to the engine, resulting in lost track time and late night work for the crew.

In the first qualifying race on Saturday, Karun finished only 3/10th of the time from the pole position. The field being very competitive, he could find a rating only within the top-10. The second session too was poor with Karun slipping to the 15th slot.

On Saturday evening, the abandoned race from Silverstone was run. After a great start, Karun moved up four places by the end of lap three but an over-ambitious lunge by the championship leader, James Rossiter, resulted in the Indian being knocked down to the tailend of the field.

The Indian recovered to finish behind old scholarship rival, Ernesto Viso, in 14th place.

In the first race on Sunday, Karun, despite enjoying a good start, had the misfortune of seeing Brazilian Danilo Dirani swerve into his path and damage his front wing in the bargain.

The second race also ended the same way with the Indian being thrown out of the field in the eighth lap.

"I just cannot believe the amount of bad luck we had this weekend. To have three collisions in three races is very bizarre and I don't think I've ever had so much bad luck in one weekend in my entire career," Karun said, summing up last week's competitions.

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