Karthikeyan satisfied with Valencia testing session

Valencia, Feb 4 (PTI) Back behind the wheel of a FormulaOne car after a hiatus of four years, Narain Karthikeyanimpressed at 2011''s opening pre-season test and the ace Indiandriver said he was "extremely satisfied" with his three-dayouting at the Circuito Ricardo Tormo here.

Karthikeyan, who was signed by Spanish outfit HispaniaRacing Team (HRT) for the 2011 season, completed 63 laps andfinished 11th fastest on the final day of the testing with atiming of 1:16.535.

The Indian set the sixth fastest time on the second daywith a timing of 1:14.472 while he was the 12th fastest on thefirst day of the test programme.

"It''s an awesome feeling to be back in Formula 1 caragain, pushing it to its limits. All of the team members atHRT and I have been working very hard over the past few days.

Fortunately, the weather has been very good, and I was able todo quite a lot of laps on each of the three days of the testsession," Karthikeyan said after the conclusion of the testingsession.

"This test has not been about getting lap-times. It wasmore important for me to learn about the team, the car, andgetting used to the specific demands of Formula 1 again.

I also focused on learning about the new specification tyres,and have tried out several different compounds.

"I was expecting it to be much harder to adapt to themodern generation F1 car, but I found the transition to bemuch more seamless than I had anticipated. It has been anextremely satisfying test, and I''m eagerly looking forward tothe next test," he said.

Hispania team principal Colin Kolles was also impressedwith Karthikeyan''s progress during the testing programme.

"Narain (Karthikeyan) has done a very good job in thistest session. The lap-times are not so important. We arepaying more attention to the data we are collecting. He hascompleted almost 200 laps over the course of the three days,"he said.

"I am very happy with his progress, determination andspeed. I am sure he will continue to improve each and everytime he drives the car," Kolles added.