Karun Chandhok

Having already signed up to contest the main GP2 Series season with Tiago Monteiro’s Ocean Racing Technology Team, Karun Chandhok will get the chance of an early debut with his new outfit when he takes part in the Asia Series finale in Bahrain.
The event will mark the first race outing of the year for the Indian driver, with the deal to race in Bahrain having come about by a desire from both parties to get extra seat time ahead of the start of the regular season.
“It’s been nearly seven months since the last GP2 race of 2008 so I’m really looking forward to this weekend,” Chandhok said. “While the GP2 European series is the most important programme, Tiago and I both felt it would be useful to do a weekend of the Asian series together as a pre-cursor to the main series.
“ORT are a new team and it will be the first time I’ll be working with the engineers and mechanics on a race weekend so it will be a good test for us to understand each other’s working practices.” Chandhok ran strongly in Bahrain last season with iSport but came away from the weekend without any points, something he will be keen to avoid this time around. “I qualified on the front row and was leading both races last year, but came away with no points!” he said. “We were really unlucky not to win after a safety car period in race one cost me the lead and then Diego Nunes took me out of the lead in race two. I like the Bahrain International Circuit and have generally been strong there in the past so it’ll be interesting to go back there this time with ORT. Hopefully we can have a bit more luck!”

The Ocean Racing Technology team was satisfied with its first GP2 Asia points in Malaysia at the weekend. Despite Sunday’s wet sprint race throwing variables into the mix, Yelmur Buurman was delighted to finish fifth in Saturday’s longer feature event, picking up four important points for the team in the process.
Having started eleventh on the grid, an F1 Nico Rosberg-like start saw Buurman already up to sixth position before the end of the first lap. “We knew points were in our grasp, and we could have scored on several other occasions this season,” the 22-year-old said afterwards. “It is a done deal now, and it’s proof that the team’s hard work bears fruit. The start was crucial in the final result.”
Team owner Tiago Monteiro was unable to travel to Asia as he was occupied with World Touring Car Commitments in France, although this didn’t stop him expressing his happiness over the encouraging result. “It’s like I was there,” he said. “I fully trust José Guedes and all the members of the team, and we keep in touch all the time. My driving career is still a priority, and I have to make some sacrifices, but I was very happy at the end of the race because it proves that we’re on the right track. We want more, we want to bring it even further and we have what it takes to make it happen,” the Portuguese added.

Vitaly Petrov has taken victory for Campos in the second of this weekend’s races, by crossing the line comfortably ahead of Pastor Maldonado and Davide Valsecchi, with yesterday’s winner Diego Nunes coming up to fourth from eighth at the start.

A heavy Malaysian racestorm saw the start of the race delayed by ten minutes, which was followed by a second delay as the torrential conditions failed to abate. The safety car was summoned to examine the state of the circuit as race directors called a third ten 10-minute call, meaning the start of the race finally coming, under safety car conditions, half an hour later than scheduled.

With the 22-lap face cut short to 20, it started without Yamamoto and Nai Chia Chen who stalled on the starting grid. As the safety car came in, Valsecchi pulled away for Durango as Maldonado avoided contact between the pair while simutaneously holding off Petrov in third position. Behind, James Jakes was proving just how hard conditions were by spinning the Super Nova with practically nil visibility.

Valsecchi continued to do a brilliant job of holding off Maldonado as the pair went side-by-side around Turn 1 in the slippery conditions, with the Venezuelan finally passing for the lead at Turn 4 just moments later.

With plenty of dicing taking place in the midfield, it was Maldonado’s turn to relinquish the lead when an aggressive but fair pass by Petrov saw the Russian move into the lead at Turn 15 on the tenth lap. Vitaly immediately pulled away although a fastest lap of more than two minutes was further proof, which the drivers didn’t need, of how treacherous conditions were.

Jérôme d’Ambrosio’s rotton weekend came to a depressing conclusion when the DAMS was black flagged and disqualified from the race after a pass on Bonanomi under a yellow flag - the Belgian overshot Turn 9, almost colliding with a group of marshalls attending to Micheal Herck’s stranded DPR car. What had promised to be a great weekend for d’Ambrosio, with pole on Saturday followed by a car failure, turned into a disaster of which he will want to make up for in Bahrain.

Petrov’s victory keeps his title hopes alive, particularly as Kobayashi’s chances took a small knock by being passed on the finish line by Sergio Perez; the title will be decided in the Middle East in two weeks with Kobayashi, Valsecci, Petrov and Rodriguez all still with a chance.

Clasification:

1. Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS) 47 puntos
2. Davide Valsecchi (Durango) 34
3. Vitali Petrov (Barwa) 28
4. Roldán Rodríguez (Piquet) 27
9. Javi Villa (Super Nova) 12