Narain Karthikeyan has remained adamant he did nothing wrong when he was lapped by Sebastian Vettel during the United States Grand Prix, only moments before the German driver lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the race. At the time, Vettel vented his frustration towards the Indian driver over the team radio.
With Lewis Hamilton swarming over the back of Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull, the duo closed up upon the slow moving HRT of Narain Karthikeyan. Unfortunately for Sebastian Vettel, the opening sector of the Circuit of the Americas is exceedingly difficult to overtake on. This therefore saw Vettel loose an enormous amount of time behind Karthikeyan, and allowed Hamilton to close the gap and eventually overtake the Championship leader with DRS-assistance down the back-straight.
However, Narain Karthikeyan has remained adamant that he did nothing wrong during the race, and that he did not impede Sebastian Vettel purposefully. Prior to the race, Karthikeyan spoke with race director Charlie Whiting on the matter of traffic, and Whiting confirmed to the Indian driver that lapped traffic would not be required to move over during Turns 3 to 7.
"I spoke to Charlie before the race because I knew a situation like this could come up," explained Narain Karthikeyan to Autosport. “It’s impossible to get out of the way in that part of the track unless we drive off the circuit. Charlie said that it was absolutely fine not to move over from Turns 3 to 7 so I did not do anything wrong. Once I was through there, I let him past and he overtook me at the exit of Turn 7 into 8. You cannot go anywhere else and it’s impossible to get out of the way before. You tell me where we can drive off the track? If he complains, it’s too bad."
After a difficult race weekend at Austin, both HRT drivers were able to make it to the end of the race, albeit in 21st and 22nd position. Rumors circulating the paddock indicate that a Chinese buyer could be interested in purchasing the team, after current owners Thesan Capital put the team up for sale last week. This would greatly assist the team’s development driver Ma Qing Hua, who could well receive a full-time drive should the team become Chinese-owned.
Follow me on Twitter - @AndyYoungF1