Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Karthikeyan wins race two for India

Narain Karthikeyan held off sustained pressure from local hero Robbie Kerr to give Team India their second A1GP victory in the series finale at Brands Hatch on Sunday

The former Formula One driver lost the lead to Kerr in the first round of pitstops, only to regain it when Team GBR produced a slow service that cost the Englishman three seconds, and the chance to take a precious double at his home circuit.

In the end, despite Karthikeyan making a number of unforced errors, Kerr simply could not find a way past the Indian, who added to his Zhuhai Feature Race win earlier in the season.

Newly-crowned champions Neel Jani and Switzerland took third place at the expense of rivals Team Ireland and Team Germany.

Early in the race, Adam Carroll's Irish car had looked feisty indeed and he could have emerged the race winner himself had he not clipped the back of India's car after the first pitstops on lap 15.

A couple of laps later and his front wing collapsed on the run down to Pilgrim's Drop, puncturing his front tyre and counting him out of contention.

Germany also suffered a puncture while running third late in the race, handing the final podium position to Jani.

In one of their most competitive showings to date, Congfu Cheng and China finished fourth, avoiding the chaos that ensued around them.

Franck Montagny took fifth position for France, while Holland's Jeroen Bleekemolen just managed to stay ahead of Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque to take sixth.

Team New Zealand managed to maintain their second place in the points standings by finishing eighth, having lost a place to Albuquerque late on in a spectacular pass around the outside at Hawthorns. Team GBR's second place puts them third in the final standings.

Italy finished ninth in the Feature Race with Edoardo Piscopo, while Indonesia's Satrio Hermanto was ecstatic to score Indonesia's first, and only, point of the season.

The Indonesian held off a four-car attack that included Filip Salaquarda (Czech Republic), Adrian Zaugg (South Africa), Team USA's Jonathan Summerton and the recovering Carroll.

None could find a way past even though Salaquarda caused some havoc by mounting the Indonesian car at Druids.

John Martin (Australia) and Adam Khan (Pakistan) were lucky to escape unscathed from a high speed collision at Pilgrim's Drop which saw both cars hit the barrier hard. The Pakistan machine even clipped the concrete wall support for the bridge as it went by.

Pos Driver                Team                    Gap
 1. Narain Karthikeyan    India           1:07:24.691
 2. Robbie Kerr           Great Britain        +1.078
 3. Neel Jani             Switzerland          +8.725
 4. Cheng Cong Fu         China                +9.132
 5. Franck Montagny       France              +12.960
 6. Jeroen Bleekemolen    Netherlands         +15.538
 7. Filipe Albuquerque    Portugal            +15.714
 8. Jonny Reid            New Zealand         +19.862
 9. Edoardo Piscopo       Italy               +26.353
10. Satrio Hermanto       Indonesia           +49.268
11. Adrian Zaugg          South Africa        +49.661
12. Jonathan Summerton    USA                 +50.032
13. Adam Carroll          Ireland             +50.247
14. Xandi Negrao          Brazil            +1:00.662
15. Filip Salaquarda      Czech Republic       +1 lap
16. David Martinez        Mexico               +1 lap
17. James Hinchcliffe     Canada               +1 lap
18. Khalil Beschir        Lebanon             +2 laps


Not Classified

    Driver                Team                   Laps
    Michael Ammermuller   Germany             39 laps
    Fairuz Fauzy          Malaysia            39 laps
    Adam Khan             Pakistan             2 laps
    John Martin           Australia            2 laps


Fastest lap, Carroll 1:15.997

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Kerr wins as Swiss take title
Next article Kerr philosophical over missed win

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe