Despite an unlucky opening race in Budapest, Narain Karthikeyan will start from Pole Position in Sunday’s second run at the Hungaroring. Teammate Luciano Bacheta spun off after a wheel-banging duel.
Following a tire-hampered qualifying both Zele-Racing cars started further down the grid – Karthikeyan from P7, Bacheta from P10. However, both drivers showed great starts and made great leaps forward. Ahead of the pit stops Narain was fourth, while Luciano was battling in sixth.
Unfortunately, halfway through the race, Narain started to suffer from engine problems and bravely battled to see the chequered flag. “We had misfiring throughout the second half of the race. On the penultimate lap the engine even stopped for a good ten seconds and then picked up again.” Karthikeyan eventually crossed the line in eighth, securing himself Pole Position for the second run, which will be started in reverse order.
Also Luciano was unlucky, as he was in a close fight with Robert Visiou in the final stages, which would have meant an all-Zele first row for race two. But the Romanian did not leave him enough space in the wheel-to-wheel duel pushing him off the track and into a spin. “He was on cold tires and I was a lot faster than him. Obviously, he was defending very hard and he pushed me a little bit off, so I had nowhere to go. It was unfortunate, but that’s racing.”
Understandably, team boss Michael Zele was discontent saying: „Narain’s car had bad misfiring, which cost him dearly. On some laps his engine was even off at the end of the starting straight. As we already found out, the master relay failed and so the power supply for the engine was cut off. Considering the circumstances Pole for race two is actually a good result. And Luciano’s DNF is also a pity, because he would have been next to Narain in the first row.”
