Karun Chandhok frustrated as wet weather ruins another Friday practice session
By Edd Straw
Friday, August 26th 2011, 16:06 GMT
Karun Chandhok was again frustrated by the rain after wet conditions heavily restricted his running during Friday morning practice for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The 27-year-old Indian was able to complete only 11 laps during the 90-minute session, and only five of those were flying laps after rain struck early. He ended up 21st fastest, almost 19 seconds off the pace of Michael Schumacher - one of only two drivers to complete a flying lap at speed in the dry.
Aside from his outing as a race driver at last month's German GP, the Chandhok has appeared five times as a Friday driver, with three of those sessions ruined by rain.
"I'm fed up of the weather this season, it's getting ridiculous now," he told AUTOSPORT.
"I had three laps in the first run and I was two seconds up before we lost out because of the red flag. Then, on the last run, I was massively up on the last lap and I hit traffic so had to back off.
"That's another Friday that has been a write-off."
While Chandhok enjoyed his outing, he admitted that little could be achieved during his running because of the conditions.
"It's always nice to drive around Spa, but it was a waste of time in terms of being a productive session," he said. "Five timed laps isn't very much when two of them are wasted, one with traffic and one with the red flag."
Wet weather at Istanbul Park, Silverstone and Spa, a gearbox problem at the European GP at Valencia and a crash in Melbourne have all contributed to heavily-restricted track time for Chandhok during his outings as a Friday driver so far this year.
Credit: AUTOSPORT.COM (www.autosport.com)
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