ZHUHAI, China — A1 Team India’s Narain Karthikeyan made history Sunday when he scored India’s first A1GP victory in an incident-packed race at China’s Zhuhai Int’l Circuit.
The 30-year-old Indian driver, who started third on the grid, took the lead from New Zealand’s Jonny Reid during the second pit-stop window on lap 31 and, despite a huge amount of pressure from Reid in the final laps, held on to score India’s first A1GP victory over Reid and South Africa’s Adrian Zaugg.
Switzerland’s Neel Jani and Oliver Jarvis of Great Britain led for much of the first half of the 45-lap event before Reid took over on lap 27. After making his final pit stop on lap 27, Karthikeyan made up ground on Reid before finally overtaking Reid as Team New Zealand came off pit road on lap 31.
Germany’s Michael Ammermüller, who won the earlier 13-lap sprint race, slid into fourth position followed by Jarvis as the top five remained unchanged through the final 13 laps. Jani finished sixth to extend Team Switzerland’s lead in the A1GP standings to 79 points — 19 ahead of second-place France, who finished seventh with driver Loic Duval.
The finish:
Narain Karthikeyan, Jonny Reid, Adrian Zaugg, Michael Ammermüller, Oliver Jarvis, Neel Jani, Loic Duval, Tomas Enge, Congfu Cheng, Jonathan Summerton, David Garza, Joao Urbano, Chris Alajajian, Adam Khan, Ian Dyk, Adam Carroll, Satrio Hermanto, Jeroen Bleekmolen, Robert Wickens, Edoardo Piscopo, Sergio Jimenez, Alex Yoong.