Narain frustrated over lack of practice ahead of Spanish GP

Barcelona: Narain Karthikeyan let off steam on Friday after a car failure meant he was unable to complete any timed laps in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix. The Indian driver already had to sit out first practice as Spanish reserve Dani Clos was given a run out in the HRT, which suffered an electrical problem towards the end of the morning. [caption id=“attachment_307055” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Narain Karthikeyan let off steam on Friday after a car failure meant he was unable to complete any timed laps in practice for the Spanish Grand Prix. Getty Images”] [/caption] When it came to his turn in the afternoon, Karthikeyan had to wait in the garage until the final half hour when he got out on to the track only for the car to fail again. That leaves him just Saturday’s final one hour session to get some proper laps under his belt before qualifying. The failure was all the more galling because HRT had skipped last week’s in-season test at Mugello in Italy so they could settle into their new Madrid headquarters and prepare their cars for their home race. “It wasn’t a good day for whatever reason and for no fault of my own. It’s just a shame,” Karthikeyan told Reuters at the Circuit de Catalunya. “If I say I am not frustrated, it’s a lie. Of course you are frustrated as a driver. “At this end of the grid you need to be close to or beat your teammate. You are gauged against that and it just becomes so much harder for tomorrow. It’s not impossible but it’s very hard. “One of the reasons (HRT did not test) was to put the car together nicely and that’s why we didn’t go (to Mugello) and the other reason was the upgrades. But they have come only today,” added the Indian. Karthikeyan said the engine and the updates were not the cause of the problems, which were linked to the wiring loom. That would not be a quick fix but he was confident qualifying would be okay. HRT, who have yet to score a point in their third season, failed to qualify for the season-opening race in Australia in March after taking an untested car to Melbourne. Asked whether his supporters in India were right to feel angry about the team’s inability to provide a competitive car for him, Karthikeyan winced. “From Australia it’s been one (thing) after another and the positives get covered a little bit and the negatives seem to be always for us in India magnified a little bit too much for what it’s worth,” he said. Reuters