KARTHIKEYAN QUALIFIES FOR MALAYSIAN GP
24th March, 2012 – Sepang International Circuit (Malaysia) :Building
upon his encouraging form from Friday practice sessions, Indian F1
driver Narain Karthikeyan has managed to put the HRT F112 on the grid
for the Malaysian Grand Prix, round two of the FIA Formula 1
championship.
Although
the team has been through a steep learning curve since the
season-opener in Australia last weekend, it has made significant strides
in areas of performance and reliability with the Indian driver
continuing to accumulate crucial miles on the car in the final free
practice session before afternoon’s qualifying.
“The
team worked until late last night to resolve the cooling issues
especially along with other small niggles and the result was apparent in
the morning. Even though the grip was lower than yesterday (due to the
morning rain shower), the car felt significantly better.”
A
trouble-free showing in qualifying ensured that the team was well
within the 107 per cent of the best time in the session, thereby having
both cars start the race in 22nd and 23rd position respectively.
“Qualifying went reasonably well, although the setup wasn’t exactly where we wanted it to be – the brake balance in particular.
“Getting
it right is critical given the number of hard braking zones here where
you haul the car down all the way from seventh gear, many times over a
lap. Getting it wrong can result in lost time, which unfortunately was
the case during my final qualifying lap where I had a massive lockup
into the final corner.
“We
also need to find some more performance out of the option (medium
compound) tyre as well.If we set this right, we should be able to find
some more time in terms of absolute pace.”
While
more speed from the car is always welcome, Karthikeyan knows well that
it won’t make Sunday’s 56-lap race any easier. The high ambient
temperatures will challenge the cars mechanically, considering the
cooling issues team has been trying to eradicate throughout the weekend.
“I
think some rain may actually help us as it’ll help keep the
temperatures down, but irrespective our aim is to improve and overcome
these issues to finish the race.”
“I
am yet to do more than three continuous flying laps, so race is still a
huge unknown. Everyone in the team though has worked incredibly hard to
get us to this level – we are closer to our immediate rivals, at least
on single-lap pace.
So
that is one box ticked and now we have to extract more out of a race
situation and sort out the reliability as well”, he quipped.
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