Narain Karthikeyan

Biography

Narain Karthikeyan (born January 14, 1977, Chennai (Chennai: A city in Tamil Nadu on the Bay of Bengal; formerly Madras) , India (India: A republic in the Asian subcontinent in southern Asia; second most populous country in the world; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1947) ) is a Formula One (Formula One: formula one, abbreviated to f1 and also known as grand prix racing, is a form...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) driver for 2005 with the Jordan (Jordan: An Arab kingdom in southwestern Asia on the Red Sea) team. He is often given the title of "The Fastest Indian in the World". He has appeared in various TATA commercials.Karthikeyan's interest in motorsport began at an early age, as his father was a former Indian national rally champion. With the ambition of becoming India's first Formula One driver, Karthikeyan finished on the podium in his first ever race, at Sri Perumpudur. He then went onto the Elf Winfield Racing School in France (France: A republic in western Europe; the largest country wholly in Europe) , showing his talent by becoming a semi-finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault cars in 1992. He returned to India to race in Formula Maruti for the 1993 season, and in the same year, he also competed in the Formula Vauxhall Junior championship in Great Britain (Great Britain: An island comprising England and Scotland and Wales) . This gave him valuable experience in European (European: A native or inhabitant of Europe) racing, and he was keen to return for the following year.

In 1994, he returned to the UK (UK: A monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland) , racing in the Formula Ford Zetec series as the number two works Vector driver for the Foundation Racing team. The highlight of the season was a podium finish in a support race for the Portuguese Grand Prix (Portuguese Grand Prix: the first portuguese grand prix was held on the boavista street course in oporto...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) held at Estoril (Estoril: the two main resort towns are estoril and cascais....
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1995 saw Karthikeyan graduate to the Formula Asia (Asia: The largest continent with 60% of the earth's population; it is joined to Europe on the west to form Eurasia; it is the site of some of the world's earliest civilizations) Championship for just four races. However, he showed pace immediately and was able to finish second in the race at Shah Alam (Shah Alam: shah alam (population 120,000) is a city in malaysia, about 20 km west of the countrys...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) , Malaysia (Malaysia: A constitutional monarchy in southeastern Asia on Borneo and the Malay Peninsula; achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1957) . In 1996, he had a full season in the series and became the first Indian and the first Asian to win the Formula Asia International series. He moved back to Britain in 1997 to compete in the British Formula Opel Championship, taking a pole position (pole position: The most favorable position at the start of a race) and win at Donington Park (Donington Park: donington park is a site near castle donington in north west leicestershire, england...
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In 1998, Karthikeyan made his debut in the British Formula 3 (Formula 3: more facts about this subject) Championship with the Carlin Motorsport team. Competing in only 10 rounds, he managed two 3rd place finishes in the final two races of the season, at Spa-Francorchamps (Spa-Francorchamps: the circuit de spa-francorchamps is the famous venue of the formula one belgian grand...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) and Silverstone (Silverstone: silverstone circuit is a racing circuit at silverstone, england....
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[follow hyperlink for more...]) . His season also included two pole positions, three fastest laps and two lap records, helping him to 6th in the championship out of 30 drivers. He also competed in the Macau (Macau: A Portuguese province on the south coast of China and two islands in the South China Sea; reverts to China in 1999) Grand Prix, qualifying in 6th position and finishing 6th in the second race. Continuing his drive in the British F3 Championship in 2000, he finished 4th overall in the standings, and also took pole position and fastest laps in the Macau Grand Prix. He also won both the International F3 race at Spa-Francorchamps and the Korea (Korea: An Asian peninsula (off Manchuria) separating the Yellow Sea and the Sea of Japan; the Korean name is Choson) n Super Prix.

Karthikeyan started 2001 in the Formula Nippon F3000 Championship, finishing the year amongst the top ten. In the same year, he became the first Indian to ever drive an F1 car, testing for the Jaguar Racing (Jaguar Racing: more facts about this subject) team at Silverstone on June 14. Impressed with his performance, he was then offered a test drive in the Jordan (Jordan: An Arab kingdom in southwestern Asia on the Red Sea) -Honda (Honda: more facts about this subject) EJ11 at Silverstone in September. Karthikeyan again tested for Jordan, at Mugello in Italy (Italy: A republic in southern Europe on the Italian Peninsula; was the core of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire between the 4th century BC and the 5th century AD) on October 5, finishing just half a second off the pace off Jordan's lead driver Jean Alesi (Jean Alesi: jean alesi, born giovanni alesi on june 11, 1964 in avignon, vaucluse, france...
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In 2002, he moved into the Telefonica World Series with Team Tata RC Motorsport, taking a pole position and setting the fastest non-F1 lap time at the Interlagos (Interlagos: interlagos is a neighborhood in the city of são paulo, brazil, home to the formula...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) Circuit in Brazil (Brazil: The largest Latin American country and the largest Portuguese speaking country in the world; located in the central and northeastern part of South America; world's leading coffee exporter) . Moving to the World Series by Nissan (Nissan: The seventh month of the civil year; the first month of the ecclesiastic year (in March and April)) in 2003, Karthikeyan won two races and took three other podium positions on his way to 4th overall in the championship. This results earnt him other Formula One test drive, this time with the Minardi (Minardi: minardi is a automobile racing team, founded in 1979 by giancarlo minardi....
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He continued in the Nissan World Series in 2004, taking wins in Valencia (Valencia: A city in eastern Spain on the Mediterranean) , Spain (Spain: A parliamentary monarchy in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula; a former colonial power) and Magny-Cours (Magny-Cours: circuit de nevers magny-cours is a motor racing circuit located in france, near the...
[follow hyperlink for more...]) , France (France: A republic in western Europe; the largest country wholly in Europe) .