Race to the grid for HRT

The HRT team beat the odds to make it to the Bahrain GP – despite having barely three weeks to complete its Dallara-built cars and get them to the Middle East.

Ex-Spyker and Force India boss Colin Kolles has led the revamp of the former Campos Meta team, whose progress stalled due to a lack of funds. He has built a strong team to join his regular Le Mans Series crew, led by Jacky Eeckelaert. Geoff Willis is a consultant, with three main engineers from BMW, Williams and Renault.

The schedule meant there was no time for a shakedown before Bahrain. Bruno Senna’s car ran for the first time in Friday practice, and Karun Chandhok’s in qualifying. The team started both cars from the pits after doing extra work under parc fermé conditions.