Putting up a brave show, Indian ace Narain Karthikeyan grabbed his first pole position of the season in Brazil, missing out on a podium finish over two races in the Telefonica World Series.
The 'Fastest Indian on wheels' was among the quickest drivers at the Curitiba circuit in Brazil, home of series champion and former Formula One driver Ricardo Zonta. He put himself fourth on the grid for the first race and had a brilliant qualifying for the second race, when he out-paced Zonta by a mere 0.004 of a second to grab his maiden pole.
However, Zonta's experience of the circuit proved crucial as varying weather conditions, which went from dry to wet in a matter of seconds, worked against Karthikeyan.
"I was always quick and the set-up of the car suited the fast but bumpy circuit," said Karthikeyan, who finished fourth in the first race and ended ninth in the second event."
He added: "There was a downpour just before the first qualifying and we set the car up for wet conditions. I had pole for 20 minutes then to our surprise it was completely bone dry. Zonta knows how the whole thing works so he waited for when the track condition was at its best he went out and got pole position. I think this was where Zonta's experience mattered.
"The second qualifying was dry and I was quick from the word go. Obviously I was very, very happy to be on pole because, not only was it was my first visit to this circuit, but it is certainly the hardest championship after F1."
The first race saw a good battle between Karthikeyan and P3 Justin Wilson, who is favoured to drive for Minardi next season. Karthikeyan managed to pass him on the pit straight twice only to be re-passed by him into the first corner. Wilson finished 0.10 of a second in front of Karthikeyan at the finish line.
At the start of the second race, it started to rain heavily, delaying the race and forcing teams to change to wet set-up.
Karthikeyan made a good start, keeping his tempo and leading the race, two seconds ahead of his rivals.
At the end of the second lap, he went over a puddle, slipped sideways and Zonta got alongside him, eventually putting him into the grass. His front left suspension was damaged and he had poor brakes for the rest of the race, slowing him down considerably.
Karthikeyan eventually finished ninth but was furious with Zonta, who later put it down to a racing incident.
"It was a great feeling because I was leading Zonta on his home race track in Curitiba," said Karthikeyan. "A win was there. The only thing is that we need some luck, which at the moment seems very far away."
