While Karun Chandhok was reduced to a spectator during Friday’s practice session, on Saturday, he had a disastrous debut in Formula One. He finished at the rear, in 24th position, during the qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The 26-year-old Chennai driver was more than 10 seconds slower than the pole setter Sebastian Vettel. His Hispania Racing teammate Bruno Senna was 23rd.
Chandhok though wasn’t worried about finishing at the tailend of the 24-car field. “I’m quite happy with my performance; after all it was for first time I had driven the car. It will be for the first time in Formula One’s history that a driver has entered a qualifying session without driving the car once,” Chandhok told DNA.
Chandhok was in danger of missing the qualifying session after his car suffered an additional hydraulic system failure before final practice session. But Chandhok could managed to complete seven laps. “With no testing and no information about the car, the team was happy with the lap time I produced,” said Chandhok.
The Indian driver felt the team has a long way to go. “We’ve to work on every aspect of the car. First we’ll talk about reliability. Our aima for first few races will be to finish the race. Only when we go to Barcelona (which will be the fifth race of the season) we will not talk about performance.”
Team principal Colin Kolles too was satisfied. “Having never run the car before this weekend, we have had the usual technical challenges which we would normally have solved during pre-season testing. But we are determined to work through this usual process as quickly as possible.”
Vettel takes pole
German Sebastian Vettel upstaged returning Formula One legend Michael Schumacher and the other three world champions on show by grabbing the pole. Felipe Massa, returning after a serious head injury, qualified second while is Spanish teammate and double world champion Fernando Alonso was third with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton fourth. Schumacher will start at seventh.
On the Grid: 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany/Red Bull) 1:53.883, 2. Felipe Massa (Brazil/ Ferrari) 1:54.242, 3. Fernando Alonso (Spain/Red Bull) 1:54.608, 4. Lewis Hamilton (Britain/ McLaren) 1:55.217, 5. Nico Rosberg (Germany/ Mercedes) 1:55.241, 6. Mark Webber (Australia/ Red Bull) 1:55.284, 7. Michael Schumacher (Germany/ Mercedes) 1:55.524, 8. Jenson Button (Britain/ McLaren) 1:55.672, 9. Robert Kubica (Poland/ Renault) 1:55.885, 10. Adrian Sutil (Germany/ Force India) 1:56.309, 11. Rubens Barrichello (Brazil/ Williams) 1:55.330, 12. Vitantonio Liuzzi (Italy/ Force India) 1:55.653, 13. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany/Williams) 1:55.857, 14. Pedro de la Rosa (Spain/ BMW Sauber) 1:56.237, 15. Sebastien Buemi (Switzerland/ Toro Rosso) 1:56.265, 16. Kamui Kobayashi (Japan/ BMW Sauber) 1:56.270, 17. Vitaly Petrov (Russia/ Renault) 1:56.619, 18. Jaime Alguersuari (Spain/ Toro Rosso) 1:57.071, 19. Timo Glock (Germany/ Virgin) 1:59.728, 20. Jarno Trulli (Italy/ Lotus) 1:59.852, 21. Heikki Kovalainen (Finland/ Lotus) 2:00.313, 22. Lucas Di Grassi (Brazil/ Virgin) 2:00.587, 23. Bruno Senna (Brazil/HRT) 2:03.240, 24. Karun Chandhok (India/ HRT) 2:04:904
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