Karun Chandhok admitted that he became emotional at hearing the Indian national anthem playing in his honour at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday, the Durango driver having achieved a breakthrough win in the GP2 Series.
Chandhok earned himself a front row start for the sprint event after a combination of strategy and combative driving in Saturday's feature saw him climb from 16th on the grid before passing Vitaly Petrov and Xandi Negrao to finish seventh.
With best wishes from
Bernie Ecclestone, Renault boss Flavio Briatore and, perhaps most notably of all, Spyker co-owner Michel Mol on the grid, Chandhok was determined to avenge the incident that took him out of the reckoning for a possible victory in Turkey, but had to give best to a fast-starting Andy Soucek as the pair charged into La Source with poleman Ho-Pin Tung. Soucek pulled away over the first three laps, before Chandhok pegged the lead at about 1.5secs, the pair looking the best bets for victory.
“Andy was pushing very hard early on and opened up the lead, but Spa is such a quick circuit and tyre wear is very high, so I decided it would be better to be patient and look after the tyres for the first five laps before pushing," the Indian revealed later, "I could see Andy was sliding around a bit more than me in front so, as long as I was willing to wait, I knew that I would be in better shape in the second half of the race.”
From lap six on, the tactic appeared to pay off, as Chandhok started reeling Soucek in. By lap ten, he was starting to look for overtaking opportunities and, with championship contender Lucas di Grassi looming in third place, knew that he needed to make a move sooner rather than later.
