Narain finishes fifth, collects eight points

An almost capacity crowd had gathered to watch the closely fought race on the 2.356 miles narrow Oulton Park track.

It was a reasonably quiet 18-lap race for the field of 26 cars, but for championship leader Pizzonia and Karthikeyan, who clocked the first and second fastest lap timings respectively.

Karthikeyan, starting fifth on the grid, had a sedate start and remained in that position as fourth placed Mathew Davis never allowed the Indian ace to pass him. Karthikeyan played it safe, but kept increasing the distance between himself and the man following him, Italian Gianmaria Bruni, from half a second in the beginning to 4.5 seconds by the end of the race.

Phil Spender, managing director of Ford India, who witnessed the race has said: “I am pleased with Narain’s progress. He looks much fitter now than when I last saw him in India. We are focussing strongly at the qualifiers at Donington Park next week”.

Ford team racing manager, Bruce Jenkins, who was impressed with Karthikeyan said: “I am happy that Narain picked up eight valuable points to go one place up the championship rankings. It is very important to continuously earn points, no matter how many”.

A press release from Karthikeyan’s team said the safety car was called in at the seventh lap when Japanese driver Takuma Sato spun off at the old hall corner, leaving debris on the track. The safety car was on till the 11th lap.

Top six finishers : Tomas Scheckter (Stewart Racing – South Africa) 31 min 18.772 secs; Antonio Pizzonia (Manor – Brazil) 31 min 19.257 secs; Andy Priaulx (Renault Elf – Britain) 31 min 20.998; Mathew Davies (Renault – Britain) 31 min 21.906 secs; Narain Karthikeyan (Stewart – India) 31 min 22.498 secs; Gianmaria Bruni (Fortec – Italy) 31 min 26.926 secs.

Final position: Antonio Pizzonia – 56 pts; Tomas Scheckter – 52 pts; Andy Priaulx – 22 pts; Narain Karthikeyan – 20 pts, Gianmaria Bruni – 20 pts; Mathew Davies – 18 pts.