ZHUHAI: Narain Karthikeyan made history yesterday when he took India to their first ever A1 Grand Prix win in an incident-packed feature race at China’s Zhuhai International Circuit here yesterday.
Narain was joined on the podium by New Zealand’s Jonny Reid, who started from 10th position on the grid, and South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg who took third place.
The 30-year-old Indian driver, who started from third on the grid, took the lead from Kiwi Reid during the second pit stop on lap 29 and, despite a huge amount of pressure and some excellent racing from Reid, Narain held on to cross the line first in the 45-lap feature race clocking 1'08:30.759
Malaysia's with Alex Yoong did not finish the sprint and feature races.
Narain, who made history by scoring India’s first ever A1GP win, praised his team’s brilliant work in the pits.
“The team have been working really hard at pit stop practices and they’ve done a really good job this weekend. Both the pit stops were excellent and we got ahead but unfortunately I got stuck behind Pakistan on my out lap so I couldn’t push but I came out just ahead of Jonny.
“There was a lot of pressure towards the end but then his tyres went off as well as mine and then we were equal – after that I just got the job done,” said Narain.
Earlier, Michael Ammermuller of Team Germany took the sprint race after finishing the race in 20:1.432. Second was Switerland's Neel Jani (20:32.033) and third was Congfu Cheng of China who clocked 20:36.064.
Switzerland have extended their lead in the championship standings to 79 points, 19 ahead of second-placed France on 60 and closely followed by New Zealand just one point behind in third place on 59 points.
The championship now takes a five-week break before heading to New Zealand for round five in Taupo, marking the first race of the New Year From Jan 18-20.
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