An oil leak and a brush with authority conspired to give India’s Formula One pioneer driver Narain Karthikeyan a turbulent debut in the Australian Grand Prix here on Friday.
Karthikeyan, 28, whose life has been in a whirl since joining Jordan last month as India’s first F1 driver, was fined $6,750 by stewards for exceeding the pit lane speed limit during opening practice ahead of Sunday’s season-opening Aussie race.
Stewards found that Karthikeyan was travelling at 86.2 km/h and was found to be in breach of F1 regulations.
Karthikeyan admitted he was under pressure as he took to the street circuit for the first time to make his name, with millions watching his every move back home. The diminutive Indian has been up against it in the opening days of the F1 season, having only a handful of testing days with the Jordan team and bidding to qualify for the opening GP.
He encountered problems in the morning practice session with a small oil leak that restricted him to just six laps in the hour-long hit-out. That was rectified by the team mechanics for the second afternoon session and he got in 29 laps and reduced his best-lap time to 1:28:16, which had him 19th of the 22 drivers.
“After that I was pushing very hard. Now I just need to calm down because I was under pressure to perform,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}“After that I was pushing very hard. Now I just need to calm down because I was under pressure to perform,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Questions have been raised over the driver’s inexperience, with Australian driver Mark Webber saying he was concerned that Karthikeyan might not have had enough time behind the wheel.
“I suppose he knows where his mirrors are,” Webber had cautioned on Thursday. AFP