The second round of the A1 Grand Prix had a lot of up's and down's for us as a team. On Friday we were really struggling with the car setup at the Lausitzring in Lausitz, East Germany.
The circuit is very twisty but the problem for us was the bumpy surface, which was causing a lot of problems because we just couldn't get the car setup sorted to ride smoothly over the bumps. Also the fact that Armaan and I were sharing the car made things harder as it meant that we had to share the time spent on the track which is something that the top guys didn't have to do.
The team and I were at the track late into the night and we made a lot of changes to the car for the Saturday practice session and in the morning session we almost halved the deficit from 3.3 seconds to 1.8 which encouraging to see as it showed that we were moving in the right direction. We've always said that as a team, we're looking at a long term objective and that as the season progresses, hopefully we'll be able understand more about how to setup the car and also for me to understand more how to drive the car accordingly.
Qualifying went reasonably well given our problems and on every run we were getting quicker and quicker. The last run which was a 1:34:3 was reasonably good, but yet again we lost out on the aggregate system of qualifying where the best two runs are counted as opposed to just the fastest one. The good thing was we were starting alongside Pakistan which was a good talking point in the paddock!
The earthquake overnight back in the sub-continent really hurt the mood in both our camps on race day and the organisers recognised the tragedy with a minutes silence at the start of the day's action.
The first corner here in Germany is extremely tight and narrow and it was going to be very important to stay out of trouble. I chose to stay on the inside of the circuit and that worked really well as by the end of the lap I had made four places. Early on in the race though I was really struggling for grip and when the Czech Republic driver Tomas Enge came to pass I couldn't hold him off and ran wide dropping back down to 17th. Towards the end of the race, the pace was better and it looked promising for the main race in the afternoon.
At the start of the feature race, I had a superb fight with the Australian Christian Jones, son of the 1980 Formula One world champion Alan Jones. We were wheel to wheel for about half the lap until I managed to squeeze past at the end of the backstraight.
The car was working much better and we chose to do a late pitstop. I was pushing really hard to try and get a gap from the guys behind so that we could make a few places when we come out after the pitstop.
By lap 15, we were up to 4th place and our pitstop on the following lap went really well. The boys were up practicing until 2am and it really paid off.
When I rejoined we were up to 12th, ahead of Pakistan and just behind the Czech Republic car. The car was a lot better after the pitstop and I straight away set my best lap of the race.
On the following lap, however, disaster struck when the electrical systems shut down due to an alternator failure. That was a real disappointment because we were getting stronger all through the race and could've gone away with a point or two.
Off to Portugal next in two weeks time. The Estoril circuit should suit me and the car more I think since it's got more fast and flowing corners which are a strong point.
We've got a week of hard work in the gym now before going to Portugal and I'm looking forward to finally getting some points!
Cheers,
Karun.
