Broken brake disc hampered Narain Karthikeyan in qualifying

Narain Karthikeyan’s qualifying session was brought to a premature end halfway through Q1, after the HRT driver suffered a broken brake disc and spun out heading into turn three. The Indian driver was lucky not to collect one of the Force India’s during his spin, which saw him eventually limp back to the pits unable to set a timed lap.

Although the marshals have decided to let Karthikeyan race in tomorrow’s Korean Grand Prix, after being unable to set a time within the 107% rule, the Indian driver was still lamenting a tough day at the office at the Korea International Circuit. The team immediately set to fixing the issue, with the hope that it will not return during the race and throw Karthikeyan into yet another perilous spin during the race.

"We were in quite a good position after the third free practice session as I’d adapted very well to the circuit and the car was performing great.” Explained Narain Karthikeyan, who was unable to set a timed lap. “But once again I was unlucky this season and we had a mechanical issue on the first lap of qualifying. Now we must analyze the problem to fix it and avoid it from springing up again. Tomorrow we will try to recover those positive vibes.”

HRT’s miserable qualifying session failed to improve after Karthikeyan’s high-speed spin, with Pedro de la Rosa only able to qualify 23rd +4.673 seconds off the pace to the leaders in the opening qualifying segment. With Charles Pic incurring a ten-place grid penalty, the HRT duo will instead start tomorrow’s race from 22nd and 23rd, albeit with a large speed disadvantage to their nearest rivals.

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