Karun starts season in style
May 14, 2006

Sepang, Malaysia: Indian racing star Karun Chandhok started off his 2006 racing campaign with a win in the all- new Formula Renault V6 Asia series. The 22 years old led every single lap of the race on route to victory at the Malaysian Sepang F1 circuit.

On Saturday, Karun set a time of 1m 58.3s to secure pole position, 0.6 of a second ahead of the Japanese driver Daisuke Ikeda. The qualifying format mirrored the one used in Formula 1, with drivers taking part in three separate sessions and the slowest drivers being knocked out at every stage.

Sunday morning's first race was to be held over 12 laps of the 5.5-km F1 circuit in very hot and humid conditions here in the middle of a Malaysian summer. Karun led the field around on the rolling start and accelerated away to take an instant lead into the tight first corner. By the time the field had come around to finish lap 1, the Madras-born driver had pulled out a lead of 1.3 seconds which he then extended to nearly 4 seconds by lap 8 when the race was stopped after the Korean driver Jeffery Lee spun into the gravel. At the re-start, Karun once again shot into the lead, pulling out a massive 3.6 seconds in the three remaining laps to record his first victory of the season.

Reflecting on the race he said, "All along, the team and I knew we had to play it strategically to save the tyres till the end. The car was very good and when I did push after the re-start I was able to pull out more than a second per lap over anyone else. It's a great start to the year and I must thank the team for everything this weekend. Whatever happens from now on, the history books will show that I won the first ever Formula V6 Asia by Renault race."

The second race of the day in the afternoon started under overcast skies, and at the start Karun once again moved into the lead going into the first corner. With every lap, the E-Rain Racing driver moved further and further away, building a lead of over 10 seconds in 12 laps. On lap 14 though, bad fortune struck when an electrical failure put an end to another dominant drive, robbing Karun of 15 comfortable championship points.

At the end of the weekend, Karun said, "I'm quite happy with the way things went despite the problem in race 2. All through practice I've been at the top of the times, and to finish the weekend with pole position, fastest lap in both races, a win, and to be leading the second one by over 10 seconds shows that we had the fastest package this weekend. I'd like to thank my sponsors JK Tyre, Scottish and Newcastle and Amaron as well as everyone at E-Rain Racing and my race engineer Anthony Hieatt, and we now look forward to the next two races on June 26 here again at Sepang."