HRT duo Karthikeyan, Liuzzi out of 107 percent lap time of Sebastian Vettel – 2011 Australian GP
Hispania Racing Team, who are already on the hit list of Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, have again left the door open for bad luck to creep in.
Both their drivers, Narain Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi, were unable to complete the lap time in 107 percent of the fastest time set by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
In Qualifiers, Liuzzi was out in the new car, F111 and did some good runs before his car faced a gearbox failure which concluded his run for the day. Narain did only four laps and was back into the pits. All the drivers needed to complete the race distance
within the 107 percent of the fastest time, which was 1 minute and 31.266 seconds to Vettel’s fastest time. Liuzzi was almost 2 seconds slower and Narain was 4 seconds slower than the qualifier rule.
This is the third drawback for the HRT team which makes them more eligible candidate for Bernie’s exclusion plan for small teams. Hispania team is also going through a tough time in terms of sponsors as they are being regarded as the least budgeted team
on the grid.
HRT are heading into their second season and their 2011 start is worse than the 2010, as they were able to at least qualify for the races in 2010. They also never took part in the two of the four pre-season testing sessions in Barcelona. HRT are also the
only team who completed their drivers’ line-up just before the start of the season as they hired Liuzzi just just in time.
They also failed to participate in the first two free practice sessions on Friday where they only had spare parts for one car. HRT only managed to get both their drivers on the track in FP3, where Narain’s fastest time was 17 seconds slower than the pace
sitter, Vettel.
Nevertheless, the race officials can still let them race in Australia which will be a very positive thing for the HRT team as they have to build this season handsomely to be a part of the Formula 1 arena for future.
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