Narain ninth quickest in Barcelona test

BARCELONA: India's Narain Karthikeyan put in 116 laps, clocking a best of one minute, 28.393 seconds at the Circuit de Catalunya here Friday, the first day of the Formule One (F1) pre-season testing session.

The 34-year old Karthikeyan, who returned to F1 after a five-year break, ended up ninth among 13 drivers on the unofficial time charts that the World champion Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) topped with a 1:24.374 over 34 laps.

The heavy rainfall Thursday left a damp track this morning which Hispania Racing, using their 2010 model, took advantage of by trying out their intermediate tyres. As the day wore on, the track dried out leaving more grip. Karthikeyan was then able to try out medium, soft and supersoft tyres.

"Today was a very productive day for me because I got a lot of laps in. I was able to use various types of Pirelli tyres; the morning was damp so we started with intermediates and as it dried up we moved on to medium, soft and supersoft tyres," said Karthikeyan.

Meanwhile, Force India's Paul di Resta, driving the new VJM04, was the sixth quickest in 1:26.575 as he completed 26 laps.

Former Force India driver Vitantonio Liuzzi will take over the testing Saturday.

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