Narain Karthikeyan takes pole and win at AutoGP Nurburgring

India's first Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan continued his recent run of strong results in this year's AutoGP World Series season by clinching pole and taking a win in the first of two races held at the series's round at the Nurburgring Circuit in Germany on Sunday.

It was Karthikeyan's third straight pole position and third win of the season, all of which came since he switched from Zele Racing to the Supernova International Team.

All three wins have also come at fast circuits used for F1 Grands Prix as well as for testing; Silverstone, Nurburgring and Mugello.

“It feels great to win at Nurburgring – it is a historic venue and it was amazing to hear the Indian national anthem playing in front of packed grandstands”, said an elated Karthikeyan.

“We knew we had the pace to maintain the lead and I managed to get off the line well so it was all about controlling the pace, even though Giovesi came quite close at times”, he continued.

After leading from the start and opening up a nearly two second gap, Narain pitted on lap 18 for the mandatory tyre change, and the Super Nova crew executed a near-perfect pit-stop to ensure that he maintained his advantage.

“I was praying for decent stop as I haven’t had the best luck in the pits this year, but the guys really nailed it this time”, he added.

Karthikeyan followed up his race one victory with a fifth place in the second race, which was won by series points leader Kimiya Sato.

With just four races left over two rounds in the season, it is unlikely that Karthikeyan will be in a position to challenge for the series win.

However, his recent run of form has put him in a position to possibly take third in the standings  from the current third placed driver Sergio Campana.

The final two rounds of the series will be held at Donnington Park and Brno, respectively on the August 31 to September 1 and October 5 to 6 weekends.