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'My wish has been fulfilled'
Even though Karthikeyan missed a podium finish, he is happy to score his first championship points for Jordan.
Narain Karthikeyan missed a life-time opportunity of a podium finish in the United States Grand Prix, but he did not rue it, saying he was happy to score his first championship points for his team Jordan.
Karthikeyan finished fourth among six drivers as seven teams, using Michelin tyres, pulled out of the Grand Prix at the last moment over tyre concerns yesterday. Only Ferrari, Mindardi and Jordan, all of whom use Bridgetone, contested the race.
"Scoring points under the strangest circumstances ever seen in Grand Prix history still feels great," the 28-year-old Jordan driver said.
"These are my first Championship points in Formula One and it does not really matter how they come. Points are points. This is the first time an Indian driver has scored points in Formula One so I am happy," he said.
Karthikeyan said even if the field was depleted it was important to finish the 73-lap race and he was pleased that his car was reliable this weekend.
"Due to the circumstances, our main job was not to make any mistakes and finish the race. My car was very reliable this weekend and I am very pleased with that," he said.
The Indian rookie, who earned five valuable points for his team, had his best ever classification of the year on Sunday even as his Jordan teammate Tiago Monteiro of Portugal finished third, taking the team tally to 11 world championship points.
Karthikeyan said he was very happy for Monteiro's first podium finish and that the results were beyond his expectations. It had lifted his team's spirits, he said.
"My wish has been fulfilled beyond my expectations - as well as for my team mate Tiago Monteiro - and I am very happy for my team-mate's first podium," he said.
"Both drivers in the team score points today and this has raised immensely our team spirit. Not only we both finished the race, but we also scored points. This is so positive and I am so pleased with the whole situation. I am sorry that Mr Shnaider, the team owner, was not with us to see this result."
The result gives the team a good number of data to work on when flying back to Europe as they will be testing next week in Barcelona prior to the French Grand prix and Silverstone Grand Prix back-to-back.
Monteiro said he had a mixed feeling about yesterday's controvercial race but echoed his team mate Karthikeyan's views that it was still important to touch the finish line which needed similar effort as in a normal race.
"I have mixed feelings as it was a strange race with no one being there. However, for me, it was still a race. I had to fight with my team mate and competitors at the beginning and push as hard as in a normal race. The most important thing today was to finish," he said.
Monteiro said even if his achievement came in "weird" conditions no one could take away the credit from him.
"I am very happy for the team because they have been working very hard the whole time. This is my ninth consecutive race finish this season and now I have scored some points so I am very pleased with that...nobody can take this away from me."
"Having raced in America in the past, I am sorry for the fans but the decision had nothing to do with us," he added.
Jordan's Sporting director Adrian Burgess admitted it was an unusual race but said the two drivers did their best to complete it clean and they would focus to improve from here onwards.
"Today was an unusual race for Jordan Grand Prix. With the extraordinary circumstances, we did our best to bring both cars to the finish and we were there to get the points," Burgess said.
"We have done the same job as we normally do in a race and made sure we did not make any mistakes or take any useless risks. Now our main focus is on our test next week in Barcelona and to keep on improving the cars."
