Narain warms up as mercury rises
The Indian Express — March 19, 2005

If the searing heat had seemed to be the worrying factor for Narain Karthikeyan on the eve of Friday’s practice at the Malaysian GP, it surely wasn’t the only thing that bothered him during the practice session. Narain encountered an unexpected obstacle as he finished 19th among the 24 drivers. While decelerating from about 285 km/hr to negotiate Turn 9, Narain’s car was hit by a bird. Nothing serious, but when the feathered intruder — after hitting the nose of the car — brushed past Narain’s helmet there was certainly a lapse in his concentration followed by a small spin.

Subsequently, Narain lost a couple of laps as he had taken his car to the pit for a clean up. But the Indian driver found his focus in the next lap to record his best timing of the session — 1:40.375s. Commenting on the enduring 55 degrees heat Narain concedes, ‘‘when you get out of the car it is like a sauna.’’ But overall he agreed it was a ‘‘nice run but physically demanding.’’ Having done 14 laps, the 28-year-old’s timing was third best among his Jordan mates, with Tiago Monterio (1:39.571s) and test driver Robert Doornbos pipping him by .86s.

Toyota’s Ricardo Zonta — a test drive — was however the toast of the session clocking 1:34.092s, which by the end of the day remained the best timing overall. Among the positives for Narain was the fact that he was better than the Minardi drivers. Fancied drivers like Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella, Fernando Alonso and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli opted to call off their session with ‘technical’ problems. The second session, too, had its share of mishaps. Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren), Reubens Barichello (Ferrari) and Valentino Lussi (Red Bull test driver) suffered spin off.

Meanwhile, Narain maintained an average time of 1:41.0s, Lap 13 saw him clocking 1:39.755s to provisionally move up to 16th spot. Two laps later he clocked his best time of the day — 1:38.855s. Among Race Day drivers Narain was placed 16th, with Felipe Massa of Sauber Petronas in a brilliant turn of speed setting the best of the day clocking 1:35.608s. Juan Pablo Montoya was just a hundredth second behind.

On the run

Did the physical training make a difference today?
It sure did and expectations of the reoccurrence of the neck pain that I had after Melbourne was not felt. After 35 laps there is no pain and things are a lot different than expected physically.

The timings, Doornbos seemed quicker; in fact he was the best of the day?
Test drivers have nothing to lose and run with a different set-up. Tyres are unlimited during the run, much different than us where conservation of tyres I of utmost importance. Doornbos had a new set of tyres when he clocked Jordan’s best.

Ideally, is this the best you could manage out of the car?
Look timings are not relevant, since Friday is practice but yes car set-up and tyre choice is finalized during these runs. And if one really needs to pinpoint what timings could be attained, it’s the ones what the test drivers did. Qualifying though would be faster.