Narain Karthikeyan returned this weekend to the venue of his first race for A1 Team India back in 2007, where he scored A1 Team India’s first ever points in the A1GP Championship. This will be his third A1GP race in Taupo, which is 275 km south-east of Auckland, on New Zealand’s picturesque North Island.

The 3.5 km Taupo Motorsport Park was slightly altered for last years’ race, with the introduction of a tight chicane at the end of the 830 meter back straight, to give the drivers an overtaking opportunity, something which is very difficult at this circuit, due to the narrow track and the winding nature of the lap. The track is also quite bumpy, and this combines with the twistiness to necessitate a suspension setup which is dependent on mechanical grip rather than aerodynamic grip. This was the first time that the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari cars attacked the Taupo circuit, and both the A1 Team India drivers got one hour each of track time.

Parthiv Sureshwaren returns to his duties as rookie driver for A1 Team India at this round in Taupo. It’s the first time he’s driven the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car and his first impressions were very positive. He commented, “It’s great to be back behind the wheel of a racing car after almost 9 months. The new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car is a giant step forward from the old car. It is super-quick around this tight Taupo track, and seems to respond very well to even the smallest change in setup. It has all the characteristics of a well balanced race-car. I’m hoping that the track time I got today and the feedback I have given the team will help the team in finding the optimum setup for Narain to put in some good results on Sunday. It’s also very important for me to have as much seat-time as possible, as I’m planning to race this year in the new Formula 2 championship in Europe.” Parthiv was 9th quickest in the first rookie session and 13th in the second session.

The afternoon practice session started off quite smoothly with Narain back in the cockpit. He put in his fastest lap of 1:16.836 on lap 14 out of a total of 29 laps during the one hour session, placing him 11th quickest of the session. The session was stopped several times with incidents involving Australia, South Africa and others. After the session Narain said, “I’m quite happy with the progress we made over the course of the practice session today. We tried several different options of the setup, and I’m quite positive that we have found some options which will allow us to go quicker over the course of the weekend. Unlike us, several of the drivers ahead of us put in their fastest laps towards the end of the session on new sets of tyres, so I’m confident of our pace.”

The broadcast times (all in IST) for the weekends action are below:

Qualifying (Saturday 24th Jan ‘09):
06:30 to 08:00 LIVE on Ten Sports
12:30 to 14:00 Delayed on ESPN

Race (Sunday 25th Jan ‘09):
06:30 to 09:00 LIVE on ESPN
21:00 to 23:25 Delayed on ESPN
06:15 to 09:30 LIVE on Ten Sports