Narain’s second chance to catch Williams’ eye

In fact, that was not all that Narain achieved. Driving the Cosworth V8-powered FW27C for the first time, Narain posted the second fastest V8 time behind Ferrari’s regular tester Marc Gene, and behind Frank Montagny, Heike Kovalainen and Anthony Davidson all of whom ran on restricted V10’s.

Having impressed considerably, Narain did have his share of first day blues when he spun. However, it was later clarified that his car stopped because of a clutch failure, something mechanical and not his inability.

Thus it was quite understandable that Narain worked himself into being “looked at again,” after it was learnt that Denmark’s Nicolas Kiesa is in fray.

While Narain has managed to heighten speculation that he will secure the third driver’s role at the team for 2006, Narain in comparison to Kiessa seems heavily tipped.

Consider this: Narain is fresh from his recent F1 exploits, quite in contrast to Kiesa, who comparatively, has done just a few Formula One races with Minardi that too way back in 2003.

In fact while, Karthikeyan raced, Kiesa — barring the test stint with Jordan last year — has been idle for most of the time.

Experience wise, Karthikeyan, who has graduated periodically up the ranks spending two years in the Nissan World Series, a year in Formula Nippon, and a three-year stint in British F3, is better placed than Kiesa who has F3000 experience apart from being the British Formula Ford champion in 1999.

With Williams shortlisting Wednesday and Friday for Narain, before they (Williams) break and resume testing in January, another impressive run would almost certainly land him the drive.