Date:26/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/26/stories/2008022660401800.htm

Sport - Racing : Motor

A learning experience for Parthiv Sureshwaran

Coimbatore: With Narain Karthikeyan badly injured during Saturday’s practice session, Parthiv Sureshwaran, the only rookie driver in the fray, stood up boldly to the strong challenge posed by some of the leading drivers to finish 17th in both the sprint and feature races in A1GP’s Durban leg on Sunday.

In only his second-ever race in the A1GP series, Parthiv, who started at the back of the grid, showed the maturity in the 15-lap sprint race by moving up five places at the end.

It was quite messy at the track at the start with several cars flying into each other or finding the barricades.

But, Parthiv managed to keep himself out of trouble by finishing the race ahead of experienced drivers like Johnny Reid (New Zealand) and Bruno Junqueira (Brazil).

The feature race turned out to be dramatic as well with the yellow flag coming out twice in the first two laps as several cars repeatedly collided around turn one. Once again, Parthiv carefully avoided contact with the car carnage caused at the start. Parthiv, in fact, lead the track at P1 in a strategic pit stop call by Team India, ahead of championship leader, Neel Jani of Team Switzerland. — Sports Reporter