Making his World Series title bid on Sunday with the first two races of the championship at the Spanish circuit in Jarama, India’s top racing driver Narain Karthikeyan finished fourth in the Race 1 qualification, reports UNI.

He finished only 607 secs behind Frank Montagny, who got pole position.

Karthikeyan, who is the only Indian ever to have test driven a contemporary Formula 1 car, has moved to the British team Carlin Motorsport for this season.

He first drove for Carlin in 1999 and 2000, winning high-profile victories in the prestigious British Formula 3 championship for the outfit.

Carlin has already established itself as one of the top teams in the Superfund World Series, and Karthikeyan and team-mate Bruce Jouanny have been setting excellent lap times in pre-season testing.

Karthikeyan is likely to challenge for top-three finishes at the circuit where he recorded his best finish of 2002.

Each race day venue has 2 races, the second being longer as it incorporates pitstops. Ricardo Zonta won both the races last year, on his way to the lap record of 1 m 23.530s.

Karthikeyan, this year, has already broken that record by 0.1 secs, in free practice.