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Chennai, India, May 12, 2009: Indian racing sensation Karun Chandhok is anxious for a turnaround at the next race weekend at Monaco, after he endured a tough start at the GP2 2009 Series opener at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. Chandhok failed to finish in both the sprint and feature races, suffering from a lack of grip the whole weekend. The Chennai born driver, driving for the newly formed Ocean Racing Technology team in the GP2 series this year is backed by Punj Lloyd, JK Tyre and Amaron.

ORT were expecting a strong showing at Barcelona, after their impressive pre-season tests at the same circuit, but the team struggled with low grip levels. Chandhok got his weekend off to a good start by out-qualifying his team-mate Alvaro Parente, who won at this track last year. Starting in 13th position, Chandhok had a good start and was running a competitive and consistent pace until his first pit stop.

Chandhok explains, “We were running at a reasonable pace until I came in for my first pit-stop, after which I struggled with a lot of understeer and ended up losing couple of positions. I was fighting hard with Kobayashi (Kamui) when the car became really tough to drive and I went off track. It is really disappointing for me and the team as we expected a lot this weekend.” Chandhok started from 21st position in the 2nd race, moving 4 places up when a misfiring engine forced him to retire.

With the weekend behind him, Chandhok is looking to change his luck at the next race weekend starting May 22, at one of his favorite tracks - the Monaco GP, where he scored a podium finish last year, setting one of the fastest race laps.

This week Chandhok will be traveling to ORT’s headquarters in Portugal, to work closely with the team to make the car more competitive before they head to the glamorous streets of Monte Carlo.

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