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A1 Team India problems - What Karun had to say

The weekend was quite a hard one for us as a team. We had a gearbox problem in Friday first practice which meant that I only got out with 10 minutes to spare. When we did get going, Jos Verstappen tried an ambitious move down the inside which sent me flying in the air on two wheels causing enough damage to put us out for the 2nd practice session also. At the end of the day it was only free practice, and why he was trying something like that I don't understand ! By the end of Friday, the other drivers had all done 60-70 laps and we hadn't even done 1 so it was always going to be an uphill task after that on the Brands Hatch GP circuit, which is possibly the most difficult race track in the world.

Saturday didn't get off to a great start either. In the final practice session, we developed an oil leak and missed the opening half hour which left me with just 6 laps before qualifying, whereas everyone else had done almost 90. We had definitely upset some god's somewhere I think !

The innovative 4 one lap qualifying sessions were really enjoyable and exciting. On every run i was getting faster, starting with a 1:18.2 , then a 1:17.3 and finally a 1:16.7. With every run the team and I were learning more, but unfortunately, the results are taken by the average of your best 2 runs so we lost out on that and ended up 19th on the grid. The car was getting better and better with each run and as a team we are making progress.

Race 1 was quite good. I managed to make 4 places on the opening lap after the rolling start and then stick close to the German and Malaysian cars ahead of me, matching their pace which was an encouraging sign. It's very hard to pass around Brands so we ended up 15th, which was as good as we could expect realistically I think after all the dramas.

At the start of race 2, my grid slot was on a slope and the car started to roll forward as the red lights came on. To stop the car rolling forward i put my foot on the brake and when the lights went off, I couldn't get enough revs to get away and the car bogged down. For some reason the officials didn't let us re-start although the regulations allow for it. It was quite frustrating end to the weekend but atleast the pace we showed was good enough to get us in and around the top 10 I think. We've learnt a lot about the car and the whole team has worked very hard all weekend through the problems.

The franchise holders Mr. Atul Gupta and his family along with A1 India's President Mr. Anil Kapoor were there to cheer us on which was great and they were really understanding and appreciative of the problems and mistakes over the weekend. It's good to work with people who are looking out for you and willing to stand by you through the hard times and I'm confident that when we go to the Lauzitsring in Germany in 2 weeks time that things will be better.

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