Narain finishes race at European GP

After two unfinished races, the Indian rookie finished 16th at Nurburgring. More on F1

Narain Karthikeyan bounced back from the Monaco disaster to produce a largely problem-free race and finish 16th at the European Grand Prix on Sunday.

HT Image

Teammate Tiago Monteiro of Portugal finished ahead in the 15th position for a satisfying performance by Team Jordan in an action packed race.

Spain's Fernando Alonso scored his fourth win of the season and the fifth for Renault but only after McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, leading from the start, saw his spectacular drive come to a tragic end when his front right suspension burst under the stress of wearing tyre in the final lap.

Nick Heidfeld of Williams-BMW came second while Rubens Barrichello clinched the second podium finish of the season for Ferrari in third place.

Starting 17th and 19th on the grid, Monteiro and Karthikeyan made strong starts, avoided incidents at the first corner and therefore improved their positions.

"I had a reasonable start and managed to avoid the chaos in the first corner and stay in front of Jacques Villeneuve for about 10 laps," said Karthikeyan.

After the first pit stop, Karthikeyan, who failed to finish at Monaco Grand Prix last week, managed to pass Monteiro and kept a good pace throughout.

Unfortunately for him, he made a small mistake near the end, which allowed Monteiro to overtake him.