NEWS
OTHER SPORTS
DIARY
PEOPLE
MATCH REPORTS
SLIDE SHOW
ARCHIVES

Welsh double-header crucial for Karthikeyan

The front pages of Britain's leading national newspaper ran the story today on its front page that the one billionth Indian is likely to be born over this weekend.

Narain Karthikeyan is truly one in a billion, the only man in his nation to compete and win in international motor racing against some of the best drivers in the world.

The Autosport British Formula 3 Championship moves to the twisty, 1.45 mile Pembrey circuit in Wales this weekend for a double-header event consisting of two races on Sunday. Qualifying for each race is done on Saturday and as the cars lined up in the paddock at 9.30am for the first session, the skies were cloudy but with no threat of the rain which had hampered testing yesterday.

Narain Karthikeyan posted an early quick time of 51.20 to hold provisional pole position. With only 10 minutes remaining, his main rivals, Luciano Burti, Marc Hynes and Jenson Button had elected to stay in the pits, waiting for the track to clean up from oil spillage laid down in an earlier session.

As the clock ticked away, the provisional grid changed rapidly, with Jenson Button the first to usurp Karthikeyan with a 50.942, followed by Andrew Kirkaldy and Tim Spouge moving into 2nd and 3rd places respectively. With 4 minutes remaining, Luciano Burti took 4th place with a 51.021 and Karthikeyan seemed stranded down in 7th - not the only casualty as recent Zandvoort winner, Marc Hynes was unable to haul himself higher than 9th.

A last ditch effort in the dying minutes of the session saw Karthikeyan run the best that his now overspent tyres could manage, moving him into a final 5th position on the grid for the first race of the weekend. The car was clearly on the absolute limit as Narain took to the grass whilst rounding the 5th gear Honda corner as he completed his flying lap.

Karthikeyan said, "I couldn't squeeze any more out of the car. It was understeering badly in the first run but when we put on more front wing to compensate - it just turned into oversteer and I never stood a chance of going for pole."

This weekend is considered crucial in the Championship. With only four races remaining after Pembrey, the final positions could be virtually settled here. Marc Hynes is lying 2nd to Burti who is leading the series but is separated from him on the grid by 2 drivers. Karthikeyan lies 3rd in the Championship with a 9 point advantage over Jenson Button but similarly has to get past 2 cars in the first race tomorrow to be in a challenging position against Britain's rising star.

The biggest worry for Karthikeyan and Hynes is now the vital 2nd qualifying session for the 2nd race. If their team engineers can make no improvements to their cars then it is certain that they will also face lowly grid positions for the final race of the weekend.