Narain finishes second in testing for Williams

Narain Karthikeyan finished second in a private testing for the Williams Formula One team at the Jerez circuit in Madrid, Spain ahead of drivers such as Columbian Juan Pablo Montoya, Felipe Massa and Mike Webber.

The Indian recorded a timing of 1 minute 19.171 seconds after 37 laps on Wednesday to come behind Frenchman Franck Montagny (1:18.804) who was testing for the Renault team.

Brazilians Felipe Massa and Ricardo Zonta, racing for Ferrari and Toyota respectively, came third and fourth respectively.

Australian Mark Webber, who was also testing in a Williams, clocked almost a second slower than Karthikeyan coming home in 1:20.105 for his sixth position. Colombia's Juan Pablo Montoya, who was in his McLaren timed 1:20.216 to finish eighth.

German Nick Heidfield and Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa finished ninth and tenth in their BMW-Sauber and McLaren respectively.

Karthikeyan, who became the first Indian to compete in the Formula One championship when he drove the Jordan car in the 2005 season, is looking for a spot as a test driver for next year after he lost his Jordan drive.

Karthikeyan outpaced Williams' 2006 race driver Nico Rosberg in testing last week when he got behind the wheel of the FW27B for the first time, prompting the team management to call him for another round.

The team would conduct its final test of the year on Friday.

Williams will field Rosberg and Mark Webber as their 2006 race drivers, but have yet to confirm an official tester.