Team A1 India driver Narain Karthikeyan finished in the ninth and 13th spots in the feature and sprint races respectively in the A1 Grand Prix event here on Sunday.

The Indian started 20th on the starting grid for the feature race, while he was 18th on the grid for the sprint race.

Karthikeyan said: “It was a difficult yet exciting race for me. We managed to pick up quite a few positions and the team pulled off some very good pit-stops. Despite not qualifying well and having to start the race at the back of the grid, we did work well as a team to bring home 2 more points to A1 Team India this race.”

In the feature race, all 22 cars had a clean start. Karthikeyan pushed his way past Indonesia and Lebanon within the first lap. By the third lap, he was in the 16th place. On lap 12, India called for their first pit-stop and Karthikeyan came in from the ninth position. After the stop, Karthikeyan rejoined in the 14th place. New Zealand and Germany crashed out to push Karthikeyan to the 12th place.

Karthikeyan took his second pit stop on lap 37, being in seventh place after the drivers ahead had gone in for their stops. He joined back in 10th spot.

In the sprint race, Karthikeyan finished 13th. A1 Team India currently stands at 12th position in the Championship with 30 points. Adam Carroll (Ireland) and Johnny Reid (New Zealand) won the feature and sprint races respectively.

Results (top four): Feature race: Adam Carroll (Ireland, 1::7:47.858) 1; Oliver Jarvis (Great Britain, +3.355) 2; Jonathan Summerton (USA, +4.104) 3; Jeroen Bleekmolen (the Netherlands, +13.653) 4.
Sprint race: Johnny Reid (New Zealand, 20:59.462) 1; Oliver Jarvis (Great Britain, +2.697) 2; Neel Jani (Switzerland, +3.745) 3; Adam Carroll (Ireland, +4.291) 4.