Karthikeyan makes history with maiden success
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Narain Karthikeyan sent his nation into the A1GP record books by triumphing in the feature race in Zhuhai, seeing off the challenge of Jonny Reid in the New Zealand entry to catapult India up the nations’ standings into the top ten.
In so doing, the 30-year-old sealed both his and his country’s maiden series success at its 52nd attempt, at the end of an incident-packed outing in China. Starting from third position, Karthikeyan grabbed the lead off ‘Black Beauty’ – all the way up from tenth on the grid – during the second pit-stop window on lap 29 and, having coped with a significant amount of pressure, crossed the line just over half a second clear 16 laps later.
“The team has been working really hard at pit-stop practices,” the former grand prix star explained, “and they’ve done a really good job this weekend. Both the pit-stops were excellent and we got ahead; unfortunately I got stuck behind Pakistan on my out-lap so I couldn’t push, but I came out just ahead of Jonny. There was a lot of pressure towards the end, but then his tyres went off as well as mine and we were equal – after that I just got the job done.”
“It was a fantastic team effort,” added an equally delighted Reid, after claiming New Zealand’s third podium finish of the 2007/08 campaign, and one that has helped to close the gap on second-placed France in the nations’ title chase to just a single point. “Obviously I’m very pleased to come from P10 on the grid and having struggled in qualifying to threaten for the win in the end.
“It’s a credit to the team. My in-laps were good, my out-laps were good and there were a few mistakes from my side of the fence, so overall I’m very pleased with the whole team this weekend – a fantastic effort!”