India's Formula 3 racing ace Karun Chandhok scored a memorable double race victory in the 24-round scholarship class of the British Formula 3 racing championship in England on Sunday.
The 19-year-old emerged tops at the Oulton Park race circuit, winning the 13th and 14th rounds.
It took his tally to six wins this season, more than anybody else in the competition.
However, Chandhok, on 185 points, continues to trail Steven Kane (UK-196 pts) in the overall standings.
Driving for the T-Sport team, Chandhok sponsored by JK Tyres, had opened the season winning at Donington Park. Since then he finished first in three successive events -- one at Croft and two at Silverstone.
Besides this, Chandhok had finished second (Snetterton) and third (Knockhill) twice and fourth once but could not finish in three other events.
According to a statement from T-Sport, there was a huge crowd to watch the events on Sunday and with the temperatures soaring to 35 degree celsius, the drivers were concerned about tyre degradation.
In the 13th race qualifying, Chandok found the going tough due to the change in grip levels of the circuit and had to settle for third place. But in the next qualifying, the Indian improved his prospects and returned the best lap timing of 1:32.390 secs, which was enough for pole position. But the stewards disallowed the race as one of the drivers 'spun off'.
In yesterday's races, Chandhok had a close fight with Ernesto Viso, who managed to be in front, despite a collision on the first corner with Steven Kane. However, Kane spun off and the Indian accelerated, taking the Island bend at 200 kmph, went for the outside line and came alongside Viso.
Chandhok took the right line for the next harpin, moving very close to Viso. Both of them braked together to negotiate it, but Chandok managed to stop the car in time, with Viso crashing against the wall.
With two of his main rivals (Viso and Kane) out of the reckoning, Chandhok reeled off the laps and scored one of his easiest wins of the year, timing 29min 17.245secs, 9.47secs ahead of Can Artam.
In the second race, Chandhok took a gamble and went past both Kane and Viso through a small gap. Nearing the first corner, Kane and Viso kept to the left and Chandhok squeezed through, though he went a bit wide.
From there on, the Chennai-born driver pulled away steadily from his rivals to score back to back wins.
Later, Chandhok said: "The Gods were smiling on me today. I was able to score 26 points from two races to narrow the lead to just 11 points from Kane, the overall leader Kane."
Results:
Round 13: 1. Karun Chandhok 29:17.245 seconds; 2. Can Artam + 9.47 seconds; 3. Steven Kane + 1 lap
Round 14: 1. Karun Chandhok 18:55.184 seconds; 2. Ernesto Viso + 0.59 seconds
Championship standings: 1. Steven Kane 196 points; 2. Karun Chandhok 185 points; 3. Ernesto Viso 163 points.
Karun Chandhok's previous victories:
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