Karthikeyan ‘tossed’out, Monteiro to steer new car

Having completed over 1,400 kilometers between themselves in two days, Karthikeyan said “the best way to deal with the situation was to not think about what happened but to get on with the job on hand — to race.”

However, the Indian would not have to wait for too long as Jordan have decided to introduce their second EJ15B at the Belgian GP.

Talking about the car, Karthikeyan said it was not bad and was ‘‘at least six to seven tenths of a second faster.” The 29-year-old Indian was quick to point out that after Friday’s testing Jordan was 1.3s off Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher’s pace. ‘‘That’s the closest we’ve run them this season.”

Having finally found a solution to the cooling issues of the new car, which led to lengthy delays dating back to the British GP, Karthikeyan said: ‘‘This time we’ve had no over heating. The tests were trouble free.”

Meanwhile, Jordan’s sporting director Adrian Burgess informed that the team had high hopes for the car after testing at Monza this week. “The car is definitely better,” he said. “But we don’t know how much better because we are at the lowest down force track and how good will be known only next Friday at the Grand Prix.”

With Karthikeyan’s hopes dashed, the Indian seemed to have taken it in his stride. But before rushing to attend a drivers’ briefing session, he said: ‘‘Its a matter of one race…Let’s give the old EJ15 its best shot.”