Karun’s day ends in despair

 

SEPANG: Karun Chandhok’s Formula Asia V6 debut traversed from elation to despair in a span of the two races that comprised the first round here on Sunday. The 22-year-old from Chennai had dominated the first race and notched an authoritative top finish after a wait of five long years in the racing wilderness. Then he led the second one with a lead of nine seconds before his car went dead.

 

Fate, it seems, does not have a soft spot for Karun.

 

An eventful day at the Sepang circuit saw the first race held up in the seventh lap with the Indian comfortably ahead three seconds after having built up on his start from pole.  A car crashed forcing the field to bunch up before a rolling restart. Karun had to sweat his way to the finish hounded by those who he had left far behind in his slipstream after the initial few laps.

 

A hoarding flopped onto the track and then two cars came together in an explosive embrace to force the second race to have three starts. All along the pressure on the man at pole, Karun, built up.

 

Shaking off the nerves, Karun posted a perfect start to what appeared to be another smooth run to the podium in a field that does not have much arsenal to challenge him. By lap five he was seven seconds ahead of the pack and his supporters could hardly keep the smiles away. The restarts had reduced the racing laps down to 16 and by the 13th, Karun was a huge nine seconds ahead before his fuel pump had an electronic failure bringing the car to a dead stop from the 250 kph plus that it was cruising at on the straight.