Karthikeyan recovers to win at Brands

The Indian made up for fluffing the opening lap in today's earlier race and completely outpaced the rest of the field to the tune of 7.2 seconds.

Karthikeyan reigned supreme in his Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda, while behind him Malaysia's Alex Yoong completed a great day for Asian racing to take second place.

"It's very very good," smiled Karthikeyan. "This is a good day for Indian motorsport and my country. Hopefully people there will wake up and support me now.

"I got a good start and the car was perfect, and from then on I could just do good lap times all the way through the race."

Yoong tried to chase Karthikeyan in his Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen, but to no avail: "My car was not very good through Clearways on cold tyres, and at that point Narain wasn't pulling away. But once the cars warmed up he pulled away really quickly. His car was in a different class today."

Yoong managed to get the jump off front-row starter Luciano Burti, the winner of the first of today's two races. The Brazilian then had to concentrate on holding back a ferocious challenge from young Briton Matt Davies for the entire 25 laps.

Davies made a big effort to take third with seven laps to go, but locked up and delayed championship leader Marc Hynes. Hynes then lost out in the ensuing scramble to National Class victor Martin O'Connell.

Davies came back on the final lap and slipstreamed Burti to the finish line, missing out by just 0.111 seconds. "You have to be leading at the first corner or the game is over," said Burti. "I made a mistake, had to defend from Davies and that let Alex get away.

"At Clearways on the last lap maybe I lost some concentration, and that allowed him to close on the run to the finish line."

Davies added: "There was no way through, or no safe way through. Luciano drove a really good race, and any mistakes he made he covered really well."

Round three winner Jenson Button trailed home a disappointed seventh. He was overtaken by O'Connell on the first lap, and was then forced to drive with visibility restricted because O'Connell's Toyota engine was losing oil.

Hynes's two consistent results today have given him an extended championship lead of 16 points, but Burti has now moved ahead of Button into second place, with Karthikeyan a fast-closing fourth.

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