Karthikeyan: quickest

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• India

A1 Team India head to next weekend's 2007/08 season opener at Zandvoort with high hopes after Narain Karthikeyan ended the final day's testing at Silverstone on top of the timesheet.

Karthikeyan lapped the National circuit in a time of 47.809 seconds - a series lap record and some three tenths of a second quicker than the previous best, set by New Zealand's Jonny Reid on Tuesday.

And the former Midland F1 driver reckons that India will be able to show similar pace just as soon as teams head to the Netherlands.

"We did the majority of our work yesterday and a little bit this morning - we kept improving the car a lot and I think we're going in the right direction," Karthikeyan said.

"I'm looking forward to the season-opener at Zandvoort - I believe we have a decent car and a good package and we will be front runners that's for sure."

Despite seeing his lap record shattered by Karthikeyan, Reid nevertheless had the consolation of improving upon his previous best, with Wednesday producing a time of 47.901s.

"It was better than yesterday because the track was faster today with the wind and the temperature but it was also a rather challenging session," he said.

"We're happy with this though and it gives us quiet confidence heading into Zandvoort."

Switzerland's Neel Jani jumped from 10th overall on Tuesday up to third quickest, ahead of Germany's Christian Vietoris and Malaysia's Alex Yoong.

Meanwhile, Robbie Kerr took over driving duties from Oliver Jarvis for A1 Team Great Britain and set the eighth quickest time, some 0.333s slower than Karthikeyan.

Indeed, the session was a close one, with just 1.3 seconds separating Karthikeyan from the 22nd-placed driver, Mexico's Esteban Gutierrez.

A1 GP testing, Silverstone, day two:

1 Narain KARTHIKEYAN INDIA 47.809 77 laps completed
2 Jonny REID NEW ZEALAND 47.901 +0.092 82
3 Neel JANI SWITZERLAND 47.932 +0.123 89
4 Christian VIETORIS GERMANY 47.957 +0.148 49
5 Alex YOONG MALAYSIA 48.114 +0.305 59
6 Sergio JIMENEZ BRAZIL 48.132 +0.323 87
7 Adrian ZAUGG SOUTH AFRICA 48.140 +0.331 75
8 Robbie KERR GREAT BRITAIN 48.142 +0.333 52
9 Cong Fu CHENG CHINA 48.179 +0.370 68
10 Enrico TOCCACELO ITALY 48.186 +0.377 62
11 Ralph FIRMAN IRELAND 48.196 +0.387 88
12 Adam KHAN PAKISTAN 48.326 +0.517 66
13 Joao URBANO PORTUGAL 48.345 +0.536 54
14 Jeroen BLEEKEMOLEN NETHERLANDS 48.421 +0.612 68
15 Loic DUVAL FRANCE 48.442 +0.633 46
16 James HINCHCLIFFE CANADA 48.495 +0.686 53
17 Charlie KIMBALL USA 48.572 +0.763 96
18 Satrio HERMANTO INDONESIA 48.664 +0.855 60
19 John MARTIN AUSTRALIA 48.715 +0.906 89
20 Chris ALAJAJIAN LEBANON 48.869 +1.060 85
21 Erik JANIS CZECH REPUBLIC 48.945 +1.136 53
22 Esteban GUTIERREZ MEXICO 49.107 +1.298 96