Leaving behind his technical snags, Narain Karthikeyan [Images] scorched the 4.5740-km Hockenheimring, touching speeds up to 323 kmph to finish 19th in second practice on Friday.

The Indian rookie driver, racing for Jordan Grand Prix, stopped the clock at 1 minute, 17.506 seconds and left behind teammates Tiago Monteiro of Portugal and Nicolas Keisa who brought up the rear finishing 22nd and 23rd.

His placing, based on the top speeds attained, was far more impressive at 11th place after touching 323.6 kmph. The Indian left behind the likes of Michael Schumacher [Images], who was 15th in the list after touching 321.3 kmph.

Earlier, in the first practice, Karthikeyan posted a time of 1:18.988 seconds to finish 18th.

In the second practice, McLaren cars took the top two spots with Alexander Wurz posting the best time of 1:13.973 seconds and Kimi Raikkonen [Images] doing a 1:14.576 seconds.

Karthikeyan said the practice sessions were good learning experiences from the technical aspect.

"Today we had two good learning practice sessions here at Hockenheim with our focus being on the technical track and the new information to be collected to prepare the best set-up for the car," he said.

"The Bridgestone tyre evaluation was also at the center of our work. I lost the car for a fraction of second, at turn 8, but nothing serious. We need the best set-up work for qualifying tomorrow," Karthikeyan added.

"For the time being, the car is running well, so tomorrow I am hopeful of a good qualifying result in Germany [Images]," he said.

In the afternoon session, Raikkonen (McLaren) marked the pace of the session with a quick 1:15.180 before Alex Wurz (McLaren) went definitely quicker with 1.13.973. The third of the session was Fernando Alonso [Images] (Renault), 1.15.560 ahead of McLaren's Juan-Pablo Montoya (McLaren), Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) and Felipe Massa [Images] (Sauber Petronas).

Ricardo Zonta (Toyota) came in seventh position 1.16.399, Alex Wurz (McLaren Mercedes) had been leading the free practice in the morning ahead of Ricardo Zonta (Toyota) 2nd, with Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren Mercedes) in third position.

• Formula One coverage