A1 Team India’s Narain Karthikeyan drove the team’s baby blue and white Lola/Zytec into the record books on Sunday (December 16th) by finishing first in the Feature Race at A1GP Zhuahi, China.The win was the maiden victory for the Indian team in A1GP competition. India thus became the 14th nation to record a win in A1GP. Karthikeyan clocked 1:08’30.759 to finish 0.502 seconds ahead of Kiwi Jonny Reid, who breathed down the former’s neck but could not match the Indian’s experience. Starting third in the grid, Karthikeyan stepped on the gas on lap 16 when Portugal slipped back, allowing India to trail Switzerland. And by lap 22, the gap between the Swiss and Indian car had been whittled down to 4.6 seconds. In lap 26, Neel Jani of Team Switzerland developed a problem with the right rear tyre and had to bring the car into the pits, which allowed Karthikeyan to grab the lead.Recently Narain lost his status as Williams’ test driver. But this win could change the carreer of India’s only F1 driver in a big way. “It proves that I can do well and we can be on level with the best teams,” Karthikeyan said, while attributing the success to combination of all factors including the pit crew. “I am familiar with the next four race circuits. Hopefully we should be doing fine from now on.”he added
Five of the 22 cars were involved in a first lap collision.Australia, Brazil and South Africa tangled at turn four and Lebanon ran off into the gravel, bringing out the safety car for three laps. Malaysia were forced out of the action due to a puncture sustained from running over debris caused by the incident. Switzerland top the overall points table with 79 points, 19 clear of second placed France. India stands at number 10. The championship now takes a five-week break before heading to New Zealand for round five.