Karun-Seyffarth duo recovers to finish 11th: GT series
Nogaro, 1 April 2013: Indian racing driver Karun Chandhok and his Seyffarth Motorsport team survived getting hit from behind in torrid conditions to finish 11th overall and 7th in the PRO category in his FIA GT Series debut at the opening round at Nogaro, France. Chandhok and his team-mate Jan Seyffarth had a great start to the weekend after finishing 6th in the qualification race yesterday.
Heavy rain continued to hit the opening round of the FIA GT Series with the morning warm-up session also being very wet. The conditions for the start of the race deteriorated with all drivers having a tricky time on their out-lap. Chandhok started in 6th position but started to slip down the order as he struggled to get grip on the wet tyres. After 4 laps Chandhok started to catch the cars in front of him at a rapid pace and passed former F1 driver Ricardo Zonta for 9th place before getting punted from the back by Frank Stippler. Chandhok then dropped to 16th place before he and his team-mate Jan Seyffarth managed to fight through the field and finish in a creditable 11th position. This is not only Chandhok’s first race in the FIA GT Series but also the first race for his team Seyffarth Motorsport.
Chandhok was optimistic of strong season ahead after a mixed start to the season. He commented, “It is a shame that I got hit by Stippler which cost us more than 5 places. He came and apologized but we lost the opportunity of a good finish. I was really struggling for grip in the early part of the race but we got more experience in the wet and we have some useful data about the tyres for next time around. We got a few more points so overall a good start for the team this weekend, who have done a great job for their first race in the FIA GT Series. I think we can fight for podiums this season after a little more track time. The next round in Zolder will be tricky again but after that I feel we should be right up there battling with the top guys.”
The next race will take place on April 21 at Zolder, Belgium.
About FIA GT Series
SRO Motorsports Group and the FIA have jointly launched the newly named 2013 FIA GT Series which will bring together the most professional GT teams and drivers from Europe and beyond. Only one of the races will be run outside of Europe and is to be held in the Middle East. The FIA GT format and regulations will be very similar to those of the former FIA GT1 World Championship, with the only significant difference being the introduction of a specific class for Pro-Am and young driver pairings. This format was successfully explored in 2012 when a combination of the GT1 World and GT3 European grids raced together at some events.
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