Sunday: Karthikeyan finishes the race for HRT
New weekend at the back of the pack for HRT drivers who still hope to surpass Virgin. Without a gearbox problem, Vitantonio Liuzzi could have achieved this goal while Karthikeyan finished the race, struggling.
Narain Karthikeyan – 21st
« It was a very difficult race. The tires were degrading a lot, especially the rear right which made the car difficult to drive. The first laps went well, but then the rear started causing me problems. I also had issues with my seat, it was burning my back and sometimes the pain was unbearable.
The positive aspect is that I finished the race even though we couldn’t get more out of it. We need to find out why we’re lacking pace; we thought our race pace would improve this weekend, but that wasn’t the case. In qualifying, it’s okay, but our race pace wasn’t like in the last races. It might be due to the drastic difference between soft and hard tires, which makes the setup difficult and causes a lot of oversteer. So, we need to work on that.
Vitantonio Liuzzi – Retirement
I got off to a good start, overtaking a few cars at the first corner, just like at the last Grand Prix. Everything was going well, the car’s balance was good, I was ahead of the Virgins and gaining a bit of an advantage in the first stint. This confirms the step forward we were hoping for since the last race.
After my first stop, with the second set of tires, we lost a lot of grip on the rear tires, just like in qualifying. I also started having trouble shifting gears, it got worse, and I had to retire.
We need to find out what happened, it’s too early to say what it was. It’s a shame because without this problem, we could have had a better pace in the second stint and fought with the Virgins until the end.
Narain finished the race, which is always positive because it means we will have data, but it’s time for us to start thinking about racing and not just finishing because we are making progress and need to try to get ahead of Virgin.
