Chandhok Triumphs at Hockenheim!!

Sunday saw two exciting races at the Hockenheimring in Germany, which resulted in amazing drives by both winners. Lewis Hamilton had the machinery to power him towards his fourth win of the this year's Formula One season, while India's own Karun Chandhok soaked in tremendous pressure to win his first race of the season. He has been luckless the whole season but it was clear to see that this victory had nothing to do with luck, but rather a commanding and strategic drive to the chequered flag.

Chandhok, driving for iSport qualified a disappointing 11th, struggling to find the right balance of the car. As we have often seen this year, his qualifying pace has been up and down, while his race pace has certainly been impressive and on par with the top runners. The feature race on Saturday was no different as he brilliantly fought his way up to fifth place, closing in on team-mate Bruno Senna in fourth rather rapidly. Then all of a sudden with five laps to go there was a heavy downpour which left teams and drivers pondering whether to change to wet tyres or stick to their dry tyres. Both Chandhok and Senna decided to opt for the wets which ultimately resulted in them finishing in 8th and 4th respectively. This gave Karun pole position for the sprint race on Sunday.

Starting from Pole he had a good start but was beaten to the first corner by the quick starting Lucas Di Grassi who jumped from fourth to first. Chandhok always knew he had a strong car and took about two laps before making his move on Di Grassi. He had a great run coming out of the chicane and both drivers went side-by-side into the hairpin with Di Grassi on the inside and Chandhok on the outside. It was a perfect dummy sold by Chandhok as he cut back inside and powered out of the corner, giving him the edge for the next right hander. After that Chandhok started to pull away until Andreas Zuber, who started 11th and edged past Di Grassi for 2nd, began to climb all over the rear of the iSport car. With 20 laps remaining, it seemed like an arduous task for Chandhok to keep Zuber at bay, but he did it brilliantly, driving intelligently by not wearing out his tyres. Even though there was just a half a second between them, the only way Zuber could have gotten past was by Karun making a mistake, even a small one would have given Zuber the lead.

Chandhok went on to win with Zuber second and team-mate Senna coming in third, second time this year that they have been on the podium together, however the Indian winning this time.

Both team-mates seem to have a very strong relationship, which is hard to find in any form of racing and this can be nothing but good for the team. This is Chandhok's second win in the GP2 series, following his debut win at Spa Francorrchamps last year. He was the first Indian to make sure that the Indian National Anthem was played at a Formula One weekend last year, and followed it up again this year. Even though it is not as good as hearing it the first time, listening to the national anthem on a race weekend makes each and every one of us very proud and still gives me goose bumps thinking about it.

Chandhok would have definitely got his deserved share of praises from the Formula One paddock, but he must know that it is important to continue this form into the next race weekend. With two podiums and a victory in the last four race weekends, he should aim to finish consistently in the second half of the season.

He is easily the fastest Indian in the world right now, but what we would like to see is the fastest Indian in the world showing off his stuff in a Formula One car very very soon...Come on Karun you are the Indian F1 Force!!