Karthikeyan stays in contention with race one victory at Brno

Photo: Auto GP World Series

Narain Karthikeyan has closed down his gap to championship leader Vittorio Ghirelli after leading a Super Nova 1-2 at Brno.

The Italian title favorite lined up first on the grid, but had a particularly slow start, allowing a number of cars through. While his teammate Karthikeyan was leading into turn one, Ghirelli was also passed by the two Ghinzani cars.

The championship leader almost immediately regained one spot when Kevin Giovesi pulled off-track on lap one with a seeming mechanical failure. From that point on, Ghirelli settled in behind Robert Visoiu, who himself stayed at at a constant two seconds behind Karthikeyan.

The race-leading trio all left their mandatory pit-stops until late in the race. Ghirelli came in a few laps earlier than Visoiu and a perfect stop from Super Nova allowed him to overtake the Romanian as he was exiting the pits. Karthikeyan’s stop also went off without a hitch, with the duo subsequently cruising to the team’s fourth 1-2 finish of the season.

Romanian Visoiu rounded out the podium, while an alternate strategy allowed Euronova’s Kimiya Sato to recover to fourth after a slow few opening laps. Tamas Pal Kiss settled for fifth after a relatively lengthy stop, with Sergio Campana overtaking Andrea Roda for sixth on the final lap. Roberto La Rocca will start tomorrow’s race from pole after taking eighth, while Daniel de Jong and Max Snegirev rounded out the top ten.

In the standings, three drivers remain with a theoretical shot at the title. Ghirelli leads with 210 points to Karthikeyan’s 195 and Sato’s 192 – with 21 points available in the reverse-grid race.

Race results

Championship standings