Steady progress. That’s been the verdict on Narain Karthikeyan’s tests after two and a half days at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. Narain, who so far has put in 180 laps in his Jordan Toyota EJ15, clocked his best lap at Barcelona on Thirsday.Narain had put in 29 laps on the first of two sessions, clocking 1:18.014. On Day 1 (Wednesday) Narain done 1:20.029. However, with adaptability being the key, Narain and his teammamte Tiago Monteiro are still to move out of the 12th and 13th spot among all testers.Monteiro, in a Jordan Toyota EJ14T — with an older chassis not in line with the latest 2005 aerodynamic regulations like the EJ15 — spent most of his test mileage runs (14 on Thursday). His task was ‘‘updating the car’. Since Wednesday, Narain’s been working through Bridgestone’s tyre test programme, which basically is the final mission before they set foot in Australia for the season opener.Meanwhile, Pedro de la Rosa put in a blistering lap this morning in Barcelona to jump to the top of the timesheets just minutes before the lunch time break. The Spaniard completed 51 laps in the MP4-20 this morning with his best lap of 1:14.542s coming on his penultimate lap of the morning. Among the two teams using Bridgestone tyres, Narain was the third fastest of the day, behind Ferrari’s Reubens Barichello (1:14.641) and Michael Schumacher (1:14.920).For Jordan’s sporting director Trevor Carlin the day was satisfactory. “A good day. And among other things, Narain improved his time.’’
