HRT and Narain racing against time for pre-season test drive | India Gazette

HRT and Narain racing against time for pre-season test drive

India Gazette (IANS) Thursday 1st March, 2012

Narain Karthikeyan's HRT team is racing against time to get its new car ready so that the Indian driver can test it on the last two days of the four-day Formula One final pre-season testing Saturday-Sunday.

Barely 17 days from the season's opening race in Melbourne March 18, Karthikeyan is itching to "scrape off the rust" after being away from the cockpit since the Indian Grand Prix here in October last year.

HRT has already faced a setback after their car failed FIA's mandatory crash test and missed the first two rounds of pre-season testing. Having passed the crash test now, the team is hoping to test the new car F112 probably on the last day of testing Sunday with their drivers Narain and Pedro de la Rosa finding time to get used to the tyres and cars.

"We are working flat out and Narain will be in Germany, where the car is being built, to do seat fitting Friday and will fly to Barcelona Saturday like everybody else," a HRT official told IANS.

HRT, a back of the grid team, could not get their 2011 car ready until the free practice session in Australia and its drivers Narain and Vitantonio Liuzzi failed to even qualify for the race.

Narain said delay in getting the car ready had definitely affected his preparation, but he now wanted to make the best use of the time available.

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