Best ever finish for Team India, Narain finishes 4th

Brands Hatch, Britain, Apr 30 (UNI) In a best ever finish for Team India, Narain Karthikeyan came awfully close to a third place finish in A1GP only to miss out by three tenth of a second.

He, however, managed to take India from seventh to fourth place in this A1GP World Cup of Motorsport after starting the race from fifth position.

In an amazing season finale at the Brands Hatch circuit, Karthikeyan drove a fantastic Feature race battling lap after lap with A1 Team Italy, but still could not make it to the podium as he failed to beat the 'three tenths of a second' difference that separated him from Team Italy. The former F1 racer finished seventh in the earlier Sprint race.

Karthikeyan, who made his A1GP debut at the New Zealand round in January was pleased to secure seven points, but could not hold his frustration for missing out on a podium.

''We were fourth, we could have been third, we had the pace for third and it would have been great to get a podium in the last race of the season,'' he said.

Germany raced to top the Feature Race, while Great Britain and Italy finished in the second and third position respectively after 70 minutes of racing.

However, A1 Team Italy were under investigation for pitting after the safety car had been called.

India qualified fifth for the 20 minute Sprint race and Karthikeyan took his place between Italy and Malaysia for the rolling start. As the 22 cars thundered down the start/finish line to start the first lap, Karthikeyan was caught out and lost two places to Malaysia and the Netherlands.

With the race consisting of just 15 laps, the team had little opportunity to make up the position, despite looking considerably faster than the orange Dutch car. Karthikeyan went on to cross the line in seventh, just one place out of the points.

UNI