Narain Karthikeyan came fifth in the Sprint and defied a rear degradation for a seventh place finish in the Feature race to add 10 points to Team India's kitty
SHANGHAI: Narain Karthikeyan came fifth in the Sprint and defied a rear degradation for a seventh place finish in the Feature race to add 10 points to Team India's kitty after the penultimate round of A1 Grand Prix here on Sunday.
In the Sprint race, Karthikeyan was pipped by Malaysian Alex Yoong who started seventh and leapt three places to finish just ahead of the Indian.
Karthikeyan, however, did well to time 16:12.680 and cling on to the fifth spot despite a strong challenge from German driver Michael Ammermuller who drove wheel-to-wheel with the Indian most of the time.
In the Feature race, Karthikeyan, facing stiff competition and running on fast deteriorating rear tyres, drove home for a respectable result with a timing of 1:03'01.173 at the Shanghai International Circuit.
American driver Jonathan Summerton rose from the ruins to clock a surprising 1:02'25.206 and help his team clinch their first top place podium finish.
Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque (1:02'34.935) and Adam Carroll (1:02'40.509) of Ireland put up commendable performances to complete the podium line-up behind Summerton.
After a convincingly winning the Sprint Race, championship leader Neel Jani of Switzerland lagged behind in the Feature Race to become fifth with a timing of 1:02'51.399.
To the delight of the few Indian fans in the grandstand, within minutes of the flag-off, Karthikeyan showed his resolve to move up to third place from his fifth grid starting. He held onto his spot for a while before the rear tyres' wear and tear affected his performance and he lost lead in two back-to-back laps to Albuquerque and Carroll.
Soon after, he took his first pit stop and changed the tyres. But the competition for the podium appeared to have gone out of his hands and Karthikeyan used his commonsense to settle for a decent finish.
After the race, Karthikeyan said looking back at the odds he was satisfied with the performance.
"On Friday, if you had offered me a seventh place finish I would have taken it. I was thinking about a top 10 finish then. But after yesterday's fourth and fifth place finishes, I aimed at a better result," he said.
On the problem in the car that held him back from performing up to his potential, Karthikeyan said the rear tyres let the side down and the team would work out a plan to deal with it in future.
"It was because of rear degradation. After we changed the tyres it was okay but the set-up did not work. In the qualifying it was good. We are thinking of using different set-ups for qualifying and race days in future competitions," he said.
He was also relieved that the team finally ended its series of poor showings today.
"Overall we were struggling for the last few races and we seem to have come out of it in qualifying. Just a few adjustments here and there could make our race pace better," he said.
About the final competition of the season in England next month, Karthikeyan said he was confident of doing well in his favourite hunting ground.
"I grew up in Brands Hatch, my best result is there. Podium would be really nice to finish off there, that's what I am hoping for," he said.
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