Karun Chandhok's strong end to the 2007 GP2 Series not only added points to his tally, but secured the award for the 'most improved driver' and earned him a test with new champion iSport International.
The Indian failed to trouble the scorers in terms of position over the Valencia weekend, but annexed a bonus point for fastest lap to confirm himself in 15th spot overall for the season.
“We were way down in 21st in the practice session and had to change the car a lot before qualifying," he revealed, "Things were much better in quali, but the times are so close. I lost three tenths on my best lap and that would've been around seventh, so we definitely had the pace. In fact, one tenth would have moved us up four places.”
The feature race started in wet conditions, something new for the Indian driver who, apart from a few laps at the Nurburgring in practice, had never driven the GP2 car in the rain. Despite this, he had moved up to tenth place by the end of lap one, but then started to suffer as his rear brakes glazed. This caused him to go off twice and drop out of contention, prompting the Durango squad to use the rest of the race as a test session, leading to the fastest lap of the race.
The final race of the year was a fairly processional affair, with Chandhok caught in the middle of a train comprising Andreas Zuber, championship contender Lucas di Grassi, Bruno Senna and Adam Carroll. After a small mistake dropped him back a couple places, the Indian then collided with Markus Niemela, putting an end to his race.
Despite the disappointment of not being able to build on his victory at Spa-Francorchamps, Chandhok was nevertheless delighted with the way his debut season had gone.
