Engine change for Davit Kajaia sends him to the back in Thailand

GE-Force Alfa Romeo driver Davit Kajaia’s 12th position on the grid for Race 1 has been sacrificed as his Georgian team were forced to change the engine on his Giulietta, which sends him to 23rd on the grid.

Kajaia had just completed one lap in the second part of qualifying, but his time was subsequently deleted to a track limits violation at Turn 1, before his Alfa Romeo developed an oil leak on the way to Turn 2, where he pulled over and the session was stopped.

The team have changed the 1.75 litre engine overnight for precautionary reasons after the fire was extinguished, which means he’ll start 23rd, behind the Honda Civic of Aurélien Panis who also has an engine change penalty. Kajaia will however start ahead of the Viper Niza SEAT of Douglas Khoo, who wasn’t classified in qualifying as his time was 1.3 seconds outside of the 107% limit.

The team had requested that the engine change be considered as force majeure as it was an outside influence that was the reason for the change, but this was rejected.