Narain Karthikeyan shows his speed even after a break in racing

Narain Karthikeyan drove in the First Practice (FP1) on Friday in Singapore in place of Vintanio. He was immediately in pace and was faster than Daniel Ricciardo till the last lap when Daniel over took him. Daniel Ricciardo's best time was 1 m 59. 169 and Narain Karthikeyan was 1 m 59.214 ie. only 0.045 seconds slower than Daniel Ricciardo even though Narain was not racing for the last two months.

As I had mentioned that it is always hard on Narain to prove his speed after coming out of a break and jumping into a car. So he did admirably well. Narain's speed is good news as he would be driving in the Indian GP.

Narain has this to say "It was fantastic to be back in the car today. I brushed off all the cobwebs after two and a half months without driving. It was a good session even though being a new track for me it was not ideal. But I am very happy with how the testing went, especially since I was faster than Daniel until the end. On the last lap I had a really good split but encountered some traffic and couldn't finish the time. It's a shame that the session was cut short because we couldn't do many laps and, with the red flags, I couldn't really get into a rhythm. But I was pretty much on the pace and that is quite positive".

And Colin Kolles had this to say  "After a long time without racing, Narain was solid and consistent and Daniel was getting used to the track and later on set some good times in the afternoon".


In a further confirmation to our previous article Force India - Neither a Force nor India (http://arjunaubacha.blogspot.com/2011/08/force-india-neither-force-nor-india.html ) where we had talked about the motive of Dr. Vijay Mallya, Team Principal of Force India in running down Indian drivers like Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok, Narain has spoken about the bad relation between him and Force India.

Narain has said that he has only got negative vibes and pessimisting feelings from the Force India team. Unfortunately, we Indian's are like that. Unlike the Japanese who try to do everything to help their country men, here the Indian owner of a Formula One team doesn't want his fellow Indian to share the glory. Unfortunately, that is the reality of life. Most of the times the Mighty wins.

Finally an Indian F1 Driver to race in India

October 30th would be a historic date for Indian Motorsport. On that day, India is going to host a Formula 1 race for the first time. And to make the event more memorable India is going to be represented by its own Indian Driver in the form of Narain Karthikeyan, the country's first ever Formula 1 driver.

Narain had made history when he became the first Indian F1 driver when he drove for Jordan in 2005. In 2010, Karun Chandhok drove for HRT but we were not sure whether he would be driving in 2011. The apprehensions proved true when he was shown the door by HRT by the middle of the year. In late 2010, Narain announced that he would be driving for HRT in 2011. He was having a successful stint in Nascar, but the lure for driving in India proved too hard to ignore. So he came back to F1 to drive a HRT car, though HRT is a back of the grid team.

Unfortunatetly, Narain lost his drive by the Silverstone race as HRT choose to take Daniel Ricciardo for the Redbul sponsorship money. However, Narain is coming back to race for HRT in the Buddh International Circuit in Noida in India.

Hero Motors had come forward to sponsor Narain and the branding of Hero Motors is going to appear in Narain's driving suit and car. It is indeed going to be a great moment for Indian motor sports as a large automotive company like Hero Motors has chosen to enter F1.

There may be a few cynics who sneer at Narain for driving in F1, however, it must be mentioned that in the only FP1 where Narain and Daniel Ricciardo has participated for HRT, Narain had beaten Ricciardo hands down. The timing of Narain spoke volumes about his ability.

It would be pertinent to mention Johnny Herbert. In an interview to Hindustan Times, he had mentioned that "Just look at Karun and Narain. They don't get any tracktime and then they are expected to get in the car and be fast. It doesn't work like that." If Narain Karthikeyan gets sufficient time in a good car, then he can really shine.