Jordan pleased with race finish

Narain Karthikeyan was pleased after making it to the end of his first ever Formula One Grand Prix in Australia on Sunday.

Karthikeyan, India's first Formula One driver, finished 15th for Jordan as the highest-ranked of the four men making their Grands Prix debuts in Australia. The Indian driver had started the race from 10th place following yesterday's rain-hit qualifying.

"I had a very bad start and then stayed behind Monteiro for a while," said Karthikeyan. "After the first pitstop, I pushed a lot and it was a trouble-free race. It is very good to finish the first Grand Prix of the season and I am looking forward to the next race, even though the weather conditions will be much warmer and humid."

Jordan got both cars to the end of the race, with Portuguese rookie Tiago Monteiro also completing the event. He finished in 16th place, two laps behind race winner Giancarlo Fisichella.

"The goal was to finish the race and this is what we managed to achieve," admitted Monteiro. "We are not the only team apparently, as all the cars seemed pretty reliable. As I said during the weekend, we need to finish races and collect as much information as possible. There are so many things I have learnt today and that is the most important.

" For the next race, I would like to make some changes to my seat position and my seat belt. I had a great start but then I lost a lot of time when people were overtaking me so I have to work on that but otherwise I am very happy to have finished the race."

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- The Autosport.com Team

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