Karun Chandhok can be comfortably termed as one of the prime flagbearers of Indian motorsports. After winning the Indian National Racing Champion in the year 2000, he continued his winning streak in the GP2 Series and later in 2010 he went on to compete in Formula One races.
Adding another feather in his cap, Chandhok has now completed his first qualifying session at the historic Le Mans 24 hours race held in France.
His team JRM Racing set a time of 3:37.088, 11th quickest in the overall classification. JRM makes the step up to Le Mans after its FIA GT1 World Championship title victory last year. Chandhok and the two drivers of team JRM Racing, David Brabham and Peter Dumbreck, will use the Honda HPD ARX-03a to contest the LMP1 category alongside works and privateer outfits.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world’s oldest active sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since 1923 near the town of Le Mans, France. This Grand Prix requires the race teams have to balance speed against the cars’ ability to run for 24 hours without damaging the car. At the same time it also tests endurance of the drivers participating in this taxing race.
Chandhok will become the first-ever Indian to compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours this weekend. He was happy to get more time in the car, especially as he had never driven in the dark at the historic Le Mans circuit. He commented, “Today was about getting more time in the car and fine tuning the balance. We’re still very new round here, both myself and the team, so the learning curve is very steep. We’ve made a lot of changes as we’ve understood more about the tyre warm up and performance, plus the behaviour of the new aero package. It’s been a fairly tough day as the grip is low and temperatures have changed throughout the sessions but we are still learning all the time. On the plus side we have covered a lot of ground and there’s a lot of time between now and qualifying tomorrow to completely understand how we can improve.”
The race can be seen live at www.fiawec.com and live onboard streaming can be seen live from www.jrm-racing.com
