A loosely-mounted onboard camera proved to be the bane for Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan as he was not allowed to set a time during the qualifying session for the Spanish Grand Prix, round five of the 2012 FIA Formula 1 championship.
The setback came on the back of a frustrating Friday which saw Karthikeyan barely turning a wheel after Dani Clos took over the car for FP1 and missing entire FP2 due to electrical issues.
But despite having been deprived of three hours of Friday running, the Indian did well to catch up in the final practice and posted the best time for HRT until before qualifying, going quicker than his teammate Pedro De La Rosa during the qualifying simulation despite covering far less mileage compared to the seasoned Spaniard.
But after his first run was ruined due to a flat spot on the tyre, he came back into the pit for a fresh set only to be told that he couldn’t go out because the on-board camera mounted on the roll-hoop wasn’t secure.
“It was unbelievable!” he exclaimed.
“The new chassis for this weekend felt good and I was confident despite whatever had happened yesterday we had managed to catch up with setup work and everything else today.”
“I just seem to have no luck this weekend, this has surely been a forgettable outing so far, and I hope this is the last of them. For whatever reasons, we were straddled with unreliability.”
Karthikeyan’s sole time set with flat-spotted tyres left him outside the 107 percent qualifying cut-off, but given the fact that he posted time well within the cut-off during FP3 meant that the stewards have allowed him to start the race tomorrow.
“All I can do is push 100 percent in the race tomorrow, give it my best shot and hope for the best possible result”, he said.
Unnatee Gidithuri
Dipan Sur
