Today, I opened the newspapers and there were like four pages of Formula One news and not a single thing on cricket. It is a historic moment in Indian motorsport. That says it all, the way we have come and how far we have travelled.

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Jaypee Sports International has built a beautiful circuit and every driver here has loved and enjoyed driving on it. Whoever I spoke to was happy and complimentary about the track. Hats off to them!There are a couple of small issues but by and large, the practice day has gone off really well. The marshals and their recovery were very good. The teams are all pleased with the time taken by them. It is a huge effort from the guys to get it right on the first day. The marshalling has been good and the organisational aspects have been good from our point of view. There are a few rough edges but people are making huge efforts to fix the problem.

How we can use this to improve motorsport further is important. It should not be a one-week wonder like Turkey or Korea. We have the national championship coming, there will be bike racing and I believe a lot of automobile manufacturers have shown interest. It will be different and we need to keep the momentum going.

People have woken up to the importance of India. Looking at the kind of coverage in the media, the foreign media and other people involved are shocked at the kind of knowledge people have here.

My dad (Vicky Chandhok) and I were standing in the pit lane and looking. We have been to so many tracks, we have seen the same pit lanes and same garages everywhere. But when we turned around and looked at the grandstand, we could not believe that it was in India. For all the work that has gone into building this track from all of us, there is a lot of emotion involved than other circuits.

Later, when I was going more slowly, there were a lot of fans who were waving and I waved back. It was very emotional. But, there is one disappointment for me and it is that I will not be driving in the race on Sunday. Hopefully, I will be able to drive next year, not only in India but in all 19 races.

Karun Chandhok is part of Team Lotus. He spoke to Vivek Phadnis