Karun Chandhok’s sophomore GP2 Series campaign this year ultimately turned out to be something of a rollercoaster ride for the likeable Indian, with victory at Hockenheim and hugely popular podium finishes both in Monaco and on ‘home’ turf at Silverstone interspersed by some appalling ill-fortune.
With his focus set firmly on becoming his country’s second representative in Formula 1 by following in the wheeltracks of compatriot Narain Karthikeyan, the 24-year-old looks back over his second season in the top flight’s feeder formula, and ahead to what 2009 may hold in-store for him…
In qualifying for the first round of the ‘summer series’ in Barcelona, it was a shame Romain Grosjean blew his engine and dumped some oil at the first corner in the final three minutes. I lost two tenths of a second on my best lap, which cost me a top three slot on the grid and left me seventh.
In the feature race I got up into fourth on the first lap behind my team-mate Bruno Senna, but then the safety car came out for an accident as the pit-stops were approaching. It’s so frustrating when that happens, because there’s just nothing you can do.
You have to stop under the safety car; if I’d stayed out I would have lost even more time. The mechanics did a great job to do both the pit-stops, but after the delay of waiting for Senna to finish his pit-stop, my good work from the opening lap was ruined. After that, because it’s so hard to pass at the Barcelona circuit, Sébastien Buemi, Kamui Kobayashi and I just drove around in a procession!
We tried something different on the car in the second race and it worked really well, but on the first lap I was alongside Pastor Maldonado and then Luca Filippi hit me, so I fell to last place. Luca apologised for it afterwards, but unfortunately it was another first lap incident that ruined the race. What was so annoying was that I could have scored points in both races there.
![Karun Chandhok - iSport Intyernational [pic credit: GP2 Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/438555.jpg)
