Narain Karthikeyan suffered his third retirement of the season duo to a suspension issue during the closing stages of the Hungarian Grand Prix, after suffering with steering issues for several laps beforehand. HRT knew this race would be tough, as Pedro de la Rosa finished last +0.465 seconds off Timo Glock’s Marussia.
After locking out the last row of the grid, HRT were well aware that the 70-lap race would be a tough ordeal for their two drivers. As ever, the HRT duo of Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa were locked in a grueling race long battle with Marussia. However, unlike the German Grand Prix beforehand, it was Timo Glock who emerged ahead of the solo remaining HRT of de la Rosa at the end.
"I had a good start to the race, maintaining Pedro’s pace and running ahead of Glock after his spin.” Explained Narain Karthikeyan, “But after the first pitstop he was running very strong on softs, I was on mediums, and he overtook me. With five laps to go, the car was steering to the right, it was getting worse, and coming out of turn 3 the steering broke, so we have to figure out what happened exactly. It was a tough race, but we must continue working to improve when we return from the summer break.”
HRT will now head back to their Caja Mágica headquarters in Madrid, before enjoying a well earned vacation during the mandatory summer recess. Once the Formula 1 fraternity reconvenes at Spa, HRT will once again be striving to continue improving and reeling in Marussia.
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