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Karun gets ready for battle in Indonesia

Jakarta, Indonesia – 21st July 2006.

The 2006 Formula Asia V6 by Renault series moves to the Sentul circuit in Indonesia and India’s Karun Chandhok is looking forward to battling for victory and re-claiming the top spot in the championship. Karun currently lies second in the points standings, just 8 points behind Bahraini driver Hammad Al Fardan.

Indonesia has been rocked this week by the earthquake and tsunami, but the organizers are nevertheless expecting a good crowd. The action on track certainly looks like being a great contest, in a championship which has seen 4 different winners – Karun, Hammad, Matt Halliday and Ananda Mikola - from 4 races so far in this inaugural season.

In today’s ( Friday’s ) practice session, it certainly was a close battle with all the drivers trying to lay down an early marker for the weekend. At the end of the three half hour sessions, Karun ended up fastest with a time of 1:22.6, with Halliday, a regular podium finisher in A1 Grand Prix, second on a 1:22.7 and local hero Mikola on a 1:23.2. The drivers have one more half hour practice session on Saturday morning before the 3 part knock out qualifying in the afternoon.

Karun, who has never been to the Sentul circuit before is looking forward to the weekend; “ I think from now on it’s going to be a fascinating contest. We had a great start to the season winning the opening race comfortably but this weekend it looks like it’s going to be a hard battle. Ananda has grown up at this track and can drive it blindfolded I think ! Matt is very quick and knows the circuit also from the A1 race here so from that point of view I’m quite happy to be up there in practice. It’s quite a technical circuit and also very hard on tyres so the races are going to be very difficult. The weather is quite humid also which will make it quite a physical challenge I think. Thus far the car has been very good and the team has worked hard to rectify some of the problems we had at the second round which cost us some points I think. I’m looking forward to it ! ”

The two races are scheduled for Sunday the 23rd with 16 laps in the first one and 28 laps for the second. Karun, who drives for the Korean based E-Rain Racing team, is backed for this season by JK Tyre along with Scottish and Newcastle and Amaron Batteries.

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