Narain awaits stewards decision to race on Sunday

By F1 Correspondent

Barcelona, 12 May 2012:Indian Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan was disappointed with another set-back to the car spoiling his chances of setting a qualifying time below the mandatory 107 per cent as he clocked 1 min 31.122 seconds way

below the required 1: 28.363 in the qualifier where Lewis Hamilton put McLaren on Pole pipping a surprise Pastor Maldonado of Williams at the Circuit de Catalunya on Saturday.

Ferrari’s updates helped former world champion Fernando Alonso get into the second row for the first time this year in his home race with a deserving thrid place and the extra set of tyres left will make him confident for the race tommorow. Hamilton who used two quick laps will not have that tyre advantage. Current world champion Sebastian Vettel will start on 8th place.

Narain Karthikeyan who lost a chance to get more laps under his belt due to a problem on Friday which saw test driver Dani Clos take to the track, did a good morning session but encountered problems again during the qualification and due to concerns of safety for himself and for others, the team decided that the car would not return to the track despite not setting an appropriate time. Now the stewards are expected to allow him to race on Sunday as he has set a time which is under the 107 per cent in FP3. But it is completely their discretion to decide that the HRT car is safe to be on the grid on Sunday.

A disappointed Narain Karthikeyan said: “It’s been a very unlucky weekend for me so far. In the morning everything went smoothly but in the afternoon, with the first set of tyres I was pushing really hard and spun on turn 3 and, as a result, I flat-spotted a tyre so I had to come back in to the garage. We were going to go on the second set of tyres but we discovered some problems and due to safety concerns, not only for myself but the others, we decided that the best thing was to not go back out. It seems like my bad luck continues to follow me this weekend and, although I’m disappointed about that, there’s nothing else I can do but keep giving it my best shot”.

Narain’s teammate Pedro de la Rosa was able to continue progress with his car’s set-up and improve his feel as the day wore on. Karthikeyan set HRT’s best time up to that moment in the morning.

“The team is still awaiting the FIA stewards’ decision but is confident that there will be no trouble for both drivers to line-up on the grid for tomorrow’s 66-lap race,” said a team release.

 Pedro de la Rosa was happy. “The day went very well, especially this afternoon, so I’m very happy with what we achieved. We completed two very good laps in qualifying, getting under the 1.28 mark which we hadn’t achieved neither yesterday nor this morning. I know that our position seems the same as always but, in terms of performance, we have progressed and that’s what I’ll take away with me. As I always say, we’ve still got a lot of room for improvement but we’re on the right path and that’s what matters. Tomorrow’s race won’t be easy because it’s a tough track and the rear tyres wear out a lot. We have to get off to a good start, give the Marussias a good fight and finish the race in front of all our fans,” he said.

Team’s Technical Director Toni Cuquerella said: “We had mixed fortunes today. Pedro was able to continue with his programme and we were able to confirm that everything works fine and, as anticipated, the upgrades gave us an improvement. But we can’t stop, we have to continue progressing. For qualifying, the car’s balance improved a little bit more and Pedro completed two very good laps. With Narain the target in the practice session was to do as much mileage as possible and he did a fantastic job, but we weren’t lucky in qualifying as he spun on the first set of tyres and wasn’t able to set a good time, and when he was about to go out with the second set we had to abort as there was a problem with the fitting of the on-board camera which made it dangerous to go back out. He wasn’t able to get in the 107% but I’m confident that, given the performance he showed this morning, there won’t be any trouble for him to sta rt tomorrow’s race”.

11.00-12.00 FORMULA 1 PRACTICE SESSION 3

Pedro de la Rosa    F112-02   #22    23rd (13 laps) 1:28.373

Narain Karthikeyan F112-03   #23    22nd (24 laps) 1:28.207

 14.00-15.00 FORMULA 1 QUALIFYING SESSION

Pedro de la Rosa F112-02    #22 23rd  (6 laps) 1:27.555

Narain Karthikeyan F112-03 #23           (4 laps)  1:31.122

 

ends