Chennai, India, May 24, 2009: It is every motor racing driver’s dream to win around the legendary streets of Monaco and Karun Chandhok was well on his way to achieve this amazing feat when a driveshaft failure cost him the win. Chandhok was dominating the race, when his drive shaft snapped eight laps from the end. The image of a dejected Karun Chandhok walking back to the pits said it all – a disappointing end to a strong weekend for the Indian racing sensation.

A distraught Chandhok said, “I am gutted, words can’t describe how I feel right now. Ever since I was a child my dream has been to win at Monaco and I was robbed of it today. Without any warning I lost drive instantly as I came down the start-finish straight and just could not believe this was happening. The team are also distraught as this would have been our first win in just their second weekend of GP2, having dominated the race, but unfortunately this is motorsport.”

Chandhok got his weekend off to a good start by qualifying in 10th place for the feature face. He would have been higher up the order but got held up in traffic in the last three minutes, during his fastest lap. However, things did not start well as he slipped to 15th place in the first lap as many drivers cut the chicane in the first corner (8 drivers were given post race penalties for this). Chandhok felt the race slipping away from him, being stuck in traffic and got on the radio to the team asking to make his mandatory stop straight away. The call turned out to be an insipred on, with Chandhok reeling fastest lap after fastest lap. The Indian ace emerged seventh after the all the pitstops and remained in that position till the end of the race.

2009 GP2 Series - Round 2 Monte Carlo, Monaco. Saturday Race. 23rd May 2009. Karun Chandhok (IND, Ocean Racing Technology)
leads the field into turn one. Action. World Copyright: Andrew Ferraro / GP2 Series Media Service

Starting second, Chandhok knew his only chance for the win was to get ahead going into the first corner. Chandhok said, “My plan for race 2 was to first make sure I get ahead at any cost and if I got in front, to drive like mad for the first 5 laps and then look after my tyres, because tyre wear on the super softs was quite high and there were no pitstops today.” Chandhok started well and made a daring move around the outside of Ste Devote (first corner) to pass Pastor Maldonado and power into the lead, pulling out a 4sec lead in the first five laps.

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