India In F1

Karun creates history by driving first F1 car on a timed lap at Buddh Circuit

New Delhi: 28 Oct 2011:  (Team Lotus Release) Karun Chandhok, Car 20
-Chassis T128-01: “It felt great to finally be able to drive an F1 car
 here at the Buddh International Circuit, and it was a real honour to
be the first car to set a timed lap in front of the fans. I want to
thank the team for giving me that chance, and everyone at the Jaypee
Group and all the people involved in helping create the first ever
Indian Grand Prix for doing such a great job on the whole event.

In the car I was pretty pleased with how it went today. We completed
most of the morning programme and without the yellow flags at the end
 of the session I’m pretty sure there was another second in hand on
my final lap time. The track itself is really enjoyable to drive,
particularly the middle section which is very quick, and as it evolves
and the times keep coming down I think we’ll see some very good racing
here all weekend.” Heikki Kovalainen, Car 20 -Chassis T128-01: “I’m
reasonably pleased with how it went this afternoon but think I suffered
a bit from not running this morning. Still, you have to deal with what
you have in front of you so we worked hard in the afternoon session to
get used to the track and find a balance that gave me the confidence to
push. There’s definitely quite a lot more to come from the car and as the
track evolves I think we’ll see that the fact we’re pretty kind to the
soft tyres should help us, probably more on Sunday than tomorrow, but we’ll
see.” Jarno Trulli, Car 21 - Chassis T128-03: “That was a very smooth Friday
and we made good progress in both sessions, both on learning the track
and on the best setup here in India. The track is not too hard to learn
but it’s interesting – there are a few different lines you can take and
I think that will encourage overtaking, so Sunday’s definitely going to
be fun. The track surface developed quickly today and I hope it continues
to do so – off line it’s still very dusty and that could catch out a few
people, so let’s see how it evolves over the weekend. On the tyre side I
think we’ve seen some interesting results today. The softs seem to hang on
very well over the long runs but the hard tyres have almost no grip and
it seems pretty tough to get them up to temperature. We’ll have to see if
that’s the same tomorrow as it could change as the track keeps developing.”
Thierry Salvi, Renault Sport F1 Support Leader: “This was obviously our first
time running here in India so the first task was to take a look at how the gear
ratios we had run on the dyno worked when we were actually on track. It looks
like we have made the right choices as we hit our targets around the whole
track, particularly on the full throttle ratio which plays an important role around
this type of circuit, which is pretty similar to Korea.” Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical
Officer: “An excellent first day here in India for us. We were able to complete a very
decent number of laps on both cars and completed the whole program we had set for all
three drivers today. This morning Karun was the first car out to set a timed lap here
and that was obviously a special moment for him, but he focused on the job he had to do
and worked through the aero program we had set him. This afternoon we worked on tyre
evaluation and we made good progress on a track that looks to be very exciting for the
drivers and fans,and a good challenge for the engineers, so from our perspective this
has been a very good day.” Tony Fernandes, Team Principal: “I am delighted to see the
Indian Grand Prix get under way in such a good style, both for the Indian fans and the
team that put the race together, and for our team who have had a very good Friday on
track. It started with an historic moment for Karun as he became the first driver ever
to record a timed lap in an F1 car at the Indian Grand Prix, and I am very pleased for
him that he finished the session as the fastest Indian driver out there, having
completed his program and putting in another strong performance. This afternoon both
Jarno and Heikki were also very strong, Jarno finishing FP1 a couple of tenths away
from the cars ahead and in the afternoon session both drivers looking strong on heavy
fuel on both tyre compounds, which bodes well for the race. We are finishing the
season extremely well, both in terms of reliability and performance, and I think that
gives us good cause for optimism for the last three races this year,and looking ahead
to 2012.”
Ends
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