Sport - Racing : Motor

Narain impresses

Shanghai: In a turnaround of sorts, Narain Karthikeyan overcame a technical snag in his car and notched up creditable top six finishes in the qualifying sessions of the ninth round of A1 Grand Prix here on Saturday.

The Team India driver, who had a 10th and ninth place finishes in New Zealand and Mexico respectively in his last two appearances, used all his experience to battle through all odds to emerge a creditable fourth in the Sprint Race and fifth in the Feature Race to ensure advantageous position for the side in Sunday’s race at the Shanghai International Circuit here.

Swiss driver of Indian origin and championship leader Neel Jani got a rare double as he snatched pole positions in both Sprint and Feature races.

In the Sprint Race, Narain improved upon his performance in the second chance with a timing of 1:34.688 sec but managed to retain the same fourth spot that he had got in the first qualifying clocking 1:34.933 sec.

The second Sprint qualifying was more intense as Canadian Robert Wickens registered a huge improvement in his performance — from 1:35.229 sec to 1:34.682 sec — to get past Narain narrowly.

In the Feature Race, the Indian ace had a lowly 12th place in the first attempt with a timing of 1:35.737 sec, but in the next two laps he fought back well to grab the fifth place with 1:35.195 sec. — PTI

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