Karthikeyan leads India to maiden A1 GP victory

Dec 17:  India ’s racing sensation Narain Karthikeyan defied stiff challenge to register his maiden A1 GP feature race victory at the Zhuhai International Circuit in China on Sunday.

Karthikeyan won the A1GP, the World Cup of motorsport, creating a history of becoming the first Indian to achieve the feat. After the win, the A1 Team India now has 27 points and stands 10th among 22 nations competing for the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport.

The former Formula One driver clocked 1:08'30.759 to finish 0.502 seconds ahead of Jonny Reid of New Zealand. India thus became the 14th nation to record a win in A1 GP.

Karthikeyan started from third position on the grid and took the lead from New Zealand during the second pit stop window on lap 29. The Indian recorded his fastest lap in 1:25.183 seconds on lap 28 with a top speed of 262.8 kph.

The victory came as a sweet surprise as this was Narain’s first podium finish after he was away from any sort of victory in any form of racing for the last three years. He came up with a podium finish in the Nissan World Series, when he clinched the Spanish leg in October 2004.

The 31-year-old proved his critics wrong with a finish that may well boost his confidence for the rest of the series. Karthikeyan said the victory was a morale booster both for him and the team and felt winning the race was always a possibility since he had qualified third.

“Being among the top three on the starting grid, we always had a reasonable chance to win. In the last three races we struggled because we could not qualify better. Speed was never the problem with me,” the former Formula One driver said.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday congratulated Narain Karthikeyan on becoming the first Indian to win an A1GP race.

Applauding Karthikeyan's victory, the Prime Minister said that he was a true representative of India's young spirit and he had set an example for the entire motorsports fraternity of the country to follow.

Final standings (Top five & India): Feature race: 1. Narain Karthikeyan ( India) 1:0830.759, 2. Jonny Reid ( New Zealand) 1:0831.261, 3. Adrian Zaugg ( South Africa), 4. Michael Ammermüller ( Germany), 5. Oliver Jarvis ( Great Britain).

Sprint race: Michael Ammermüller ( Germany), 2. Neel Jani ( Switzerland), 3. Cheng Cong Fu ( China), 4. Adam Carroll ( Ireland), 5. Tomas Enge ( Czech Republic) & Narain ( India, seventh).