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Silverstone, June 21, 2009: Karun Chandhok put on a stunning display at the GP2 race at Silverstone to finish on the podium for Ocean Racing Technology. Chandhok's 3rd place means that this is the first ever podium for the Portugese team in the GP2 series. The Chennai born driver drove a strong race to finish ahead of series leader Romain Grosjean. Chandhok had earlier finished 6th in the feature race.

A delighted Chandhok said, "I am very very pleased for the team, being the first podium for them. I was as quick as the guys in front early on but started to struggle with traction later on in the slower corners so I decided to just make sure I looked after the car till the end. It feels really good to be on the podium again at Silverstone. It's a good present for my dad on father's day and also a great day for Tiago and the boys at ORT."

Chandhok got his weekend off to a perfect start by finishing third in the first practice. He was looking good going into qualifying but got caught out in traffic which ruined his qualifying. Chandhok ended up qualifying 11th on a circuit where he felt he should have been in the top 5. "I really got messed up in qualifying with traffic. Nunes (Diego) blocked me twice and Valssechi (David) once on my best laps when I was on course for fourth place. After qualifying, they both got penalised but it didn't really help me." commented Chandhok.

In the feature race Chandhok faced an uphill task starting 11th on the grid. However, he had a fantastic start and moved up to 6th by the end of the first lap. Chandhok was in 4th position as he pitted for his mandatory stop, but the rear wheel nut jammed costing Chandhok three places. Chandhok managed to pass Andy Zuber in a brilliant move outbraking him around the outside into Stowe corner and was all over the back of 5th place Grosjean, but ended up finishing in 6th place at the chequered flag. Chandhok commented "We had a good first race. Our pace was very strong and if not for a jammed wheel nut we would have easily been 2 places up. Perez and Grosjean just drove past me when I was exiting the pits. I pushed like hell with Grosjean and we had a great battle but ruined my front tyres following him in the bargain."

Chandhok is definitely optimistic for the rest of the season as he takes a mini-break and heads to India. A happy Chandhok said "The team has definitely made a lot of progress since the start of the season and finally I believe our luck has changed. I am now looking forward to some days off in india and then the rest of the season starting in Germany."

Karun paid tribute to his partners Punj Lloyd, JK Tyre and Amaron "My partners were the first to congratulate me and it is great that they are following so closely. We will continue to do our best for the rest of the season."

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