Narain Karthikeyan suffered a hydraulic issue on his car throughout the early stages of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which greatly effected his steering and forced him to slow down on the track. Unfortunately for the Indian driver, the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg was right behind him, and flew over the top of his car in violent fashion.
Luckily both drivers were unscathed after the heavy incident, which saw Rosberg slam into the retaining barriers after making contact with the slow moving HRT of Karthikeyan. The Mercedes driver was running towards the back of the pack after a minor collision with the Lotus of Romain Grosjean at the start of the race, which damaged his front wing. This forced Rosberg to pit, and saw him plummet through the order. Despite not scoring a point since Singapore, the German is pleased that both himself and Karthikeyan were uninjured after the crash.
“My car felt competitive today so it’s a real shame not to have finished the race and scored some points.” Explained Nico Rosberg, “Unfortunately that chance was gone after the first lap incident with Romain [Grosjean], after which I had to come into the pits for a new nose. Then there was the accident which put me out of the race. Narain told me that his steering broke and he needed to brake which I didn’t expect in that high-speed corner. There was no time for me to react, and I’m very thankful that we are both fine. I went to the medical centre for a precautionary check but everything is good.”
Narain Karthikeyan was naturally equally disappointed with the incident, however he is now focusing on the next race in two weeks time at the brand-new Circuit of the Americas in Texas. This was the Indian driver’s seventh retirement of the year, which has been extremely tough for HRT.
"On lap 9 we had a problem with the hydraulic pressure and steering of the car went rock solid, so I had to lift my foot off the accelerator.” Said Narain Karthikeyan, who was lucky to walk away unscathed after the incident. “Unfortunately, Rosberg was coming from behind and couldn’t avoid me. It was tremendously unlucky but we have to leave it in the past and think about the United States Grand Prix in two weeks.”
Although Narain Karthikeyan struggled all weekend around the Yas Marina circuit, HRT remain confident of ending the season on a positive note, with only two races now remaining in the Championship. Throughout the year, HRT have greatly improved at each event, and will be aiming to continue doing so in two weeks at time when F1 ventures into the unknown at Texas.
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