Karthikeyan prepares for A1GP season with GP2 test in France

New Delhi, Sep 25 (UNI) In a bid to keep himself into the groove ahead of the forthcoming A1GP season, which starts in Netherlands next month, A1 Team India lead driver Narain Karthikeyan participateed in the official GP2 test at the Paul Ricard circuit in France.

The ace Indian driver will continue his participation tomorrow as well.

Since Narain has not driven a race-car for almost five months, the team decided that an acclimatisation test for Narain would be of great benefit. The GP2 car is dynamically similar to the new one Powered by Ferrari A1GP car.

The next A1GP season starts in Zandvoort, Netherlands on October 4 and 5.

Narain will test for Trident Racing, an Italian team, which has been participating in the GP2 Series since its inception in 2005.

Interestingly, this is the first time Narain will be sitting in a GP2 car and hence this session will be a good warm up experience for him before testing the new A1GP Ferrari car early next week closely followed by the race in Zandvoort.

Hence, this will be an interesting and busy week for Narain - jumpstarting with several drives at the start of the new season.

''I am really excited about the forthcoming races and I am really charged up and raring to go. This will also be a good practice session for me before the start of the A1GP races in October,'' Narain said from the Paul Ricard circuit.

To have a fair competition and give every driver a level playing field, all GP2 cars are identical - the engine, the suspension, the tyres, the gear box, down to the fuel used.

The only differentiating factors are the driver's skills and nerves.

With top of the line Renault 4.0 liter V8 engines capable of churning 600 BHP at 10,000 rpm the cars can race up to nearly 320 km/h (198 mph) under 6.7 seconds making them incredibly fast.

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