Sizzling Chandok wins Hockenheim GP2 Series

Hockenheim, Germany, Jul 20 (UNI) Ace Indian driver Karun Chandhok rewrote history to score his first race win of the 2008 GP2 Series here today, the second victory of his career in the Formula 1 feeder category.

The 24-year-old from Chennai started from pole position but lost his advantage at the start to Renault F1 test driver Lucas di Grassi, as Karun's clutch didn't disengage properly, and he spun his wheels too much as the lights went out.

Chandhok ran in a solid second in the early laps, but soon closed up onto di Grassi's tail with some quick laptimes. He slipstreamed past him at the Parabolika sweeper, and then battled wheel-to-wheel at the Spitzkehre and the Mercedes Arena, where Karun took the lead.

After that, he came under intense pressure from Andi Zuber of Piquet Sports for the last 20 laps of the race, but Karun kept his cool for a fantastic victory for the iSport International team.

''We've had some really bad luck on Sundays this year, so it was nice to finally win one,'' an estatic Chandhok gushed after the race. ''It was a good win, because I had to pass Lucas for the lead and was under pressure all the time, but I had good pace. I think the team did a great job for me. It's a fantastic result.'' Asked to comment on his race, Karun said,''We changed the clutch overnight, and I just couldn't judge the bite of it at the start.

Lucas had an amazing start, but he was pretty slow and it was no problem to pass him. I got a good exit from Turn 2, and he was sliding around a lot, and got a good run into the hairpin.'' UNI XC AB CS NS1905