Shanghai: Narain Karthikeyan of HRT F1 earned his second consecutive finish of the season as he finished 22nd in the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday.
The race which started under overcast conditions progressed well, but was not that easy going for Karthikeyan.
On the reconnaissance lap (out of the pits), the suspension problem from the final practice session resurfaced on Karthikeyan’s car and the team had to bring out the spanners while he sat on the grid.
“It wasn’t the best feeling – to have a critical issue like that just minutes before the start.”
After a frantic few minutes, the problem was taken care of, but Karthikeyan wasn’t entirely comfortable.
“The team did a great job dealing with the issue but as a driver you’re still unsure if the car would behave normally once it gets moving.”
Adding to his woes, the start didn’t go off as planned too.
“The start was really bad; we need to do some work on that because it is still new.
“We were still unsure about the suspension, plus the soft tyres weren’t working too well – thecar was moving a lot even on the straights, so we need to look at the data and see what exactly was going on.”
Once switched over to the harder prime tyre, the Indian found the balance more favourable and maintained consistent pace to cross the line in 22nd place.
Considering the tough weekend, the finish came as a relief and he is now looking forward to the Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend.
“I had my share of problems this weekend so I am looking forward to Bahrain and a much more consistent weekend overall.
“It is a completely different circuit, and it is going to be much hotter but the car has shown good reliability so fingers crossed,” Karthikeyan said.
By Indian Sports News Network
