Narain Karthikeyan plagued with hydraulic issue during practice

Narain Karthikeyan’s progress during the second practice session was hampered slightly due to a hydraulic issue on his HRT F112, as the local driver set to preparing for this weekend’s Indian Grand Prix. Just after the Indian driver switched to the soft tyres during FP2, his mechanics noticed an issue on his car and called an end to his session.

Despite this minor setback, both HRT drivers remain confident that the weekend is going to plan, although both admit there is still room for improvement with the balance of the car. Whilst Narain Karthikeyan prepared for what will be his second home race, team-mate Pedro de la Rosa set to learning the Buddh International Circuit as the Spaniard had never before raced around the still relatively new track.

"I loved the circuit. It’s really nice and also very challenging.” Enthused Pedro de la Rosa, who was not on the grid this time last year for the inaugural event. “You have to use the kerbs a lot and the car really suffers, so we have to drive carefully. Overall I had good sensations with the balance of the car, especially in the afternoon when I was able to do more laps. But we’ve still got a lot of room for improvement and if we’re able to improve the balance of the car we’ll be able to run better. Especially in changes of direction because we lose too much time on quick corners and we can correct that.”

Although the team is confident the hydraulic issues which plagued Karthikeyan will not return throughout the remainder of the weekend, Narain Karthikeyan was understandably disappointed with the loss of valuable track time. Nevertheless, the local driver is confident of a competitive qualifying session tomorrow afternoon.

"The first session went pretty well and in the afternoon we decided to change the balance of the car to improve certain aspects.” Explained Narain Karthikeyan, “We’d just set the soft tyres when, unfortunately, we suffered a hydraulic failure which impeded us from improving our times. But the problem should be fixed for tomorrow so I hope to have a good qualifying session.”

Regardless of HRT’s minor setback throughout the opening two practice sessions, Pedro de la Rosa managed to finish ahead of the Marussia duo of Timo Glock and Charles Pic, therefore providing the team which improved confidence ahead of the all-important qualifying hour. Such is the case with many teams towards the rear of the pack, their 2013 plans have yet to be confirmed and could well be influenced by the next few races.

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