Asian Motor Sports

Parthiva Sureshwaren is on standby to race for A1 Team India tomorrow after Narain Karthikeyan injured his hand in a free practice accident today.

Karthikeyan ran into the tyre barriers at the exit of the second turn in this morning’s free practice session at the tricky Durban street circuit. Although X-Rays showed that nothing had been broken, his wrist is swollen and it is causing him pain. The team restricted him to just one run in each of Sprint and Feature qualifying sessions this afternoon, when he put the sky blue car ninth and 17th respectively.

Karthikeyan is planning to race in the shorter Sprint race tomorrow morning, but should the wrist cause him any more bother afterwards, the team is readying its rookie Sureshwaren to compete in the Feature race.

“It was very painful on the bumps and curves and I really tried pushing the car,” Karthikeyan said. “It was physically very demanding as the pain got progressively worse and so we didn’t run on all four sessions. I wanted to conserve my energy for the two that mattered most.

“I have been advised not to race tomorrow – but the Feature race is long and it’s most unlikely I’ll be able to race in that. I might be able to drive in the Sprint and it depends on how my hand is tomorrow.”

Sureshwaren has been the team’s rookie all season. He earned two caps for the team in Sydney, Australia in 2007.