Narain Karthikeyan handled his bullish Jordan Toyota EJ15 car brilliantly to finish 17th after two practice sessions ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona on Friday.
After finishing behind teammate Tiego Monteiro and third driver Robert Doornbos in the first session, the Indian ace pushed hard the rugged machine to finish fractions of seconds ahead of the two drivers in the second.
From a timing of 1:21.628, Karthikeyan improved nearly three seconds to come in at 1:18.858, this despite the EJ15 slipping and swerving on the Catalunya circuit.
Karthikeyan was happy that he brought in the car without damage.
"We are continuing the set-up of the car today in preparation of the race," Karthikeyan, the first Indian to drive in Formula One, said.
"Up to now, every thing's developed well despite my small spin on the dirty and slippery surface of the Barcelona track, that gives a lot of under-steering to the car."
Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa in McLaren Mercedes was the quickest in the two practice sessions.
The Friday afternoon session was run on the dry with a blue sky and shining sun with light, cool wind under a warm and pleasant temperature of 24 degrees and track temperature of 43 degrees.
During the one-hour long session, Ricardo Zonta (Panasonic Toyota) dominated the 33 laps he practiced during the session.
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