Narain Karthikeyan optimistic for the 107% rule

Narain Karthikeyan announced he was “quite optimistic” about qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The HRT driver, who missed qualifying in Australia with a time exceeding 107%, finished today’s testing 6.3 seconds behind the leader.

The 107% mark was set today at 1 min 43.657 s, and the best time for the Indian is 1 min 43.197 s.

Karthikeyan stated he was quite optimistic about qualifying but acknowledged that anything was possible due to the slim margins.

I’m quite confident but losing half a second here and there. At least we got to run today – not as much as we hoped because both our cars had many issues. But it’s something we’re working on, though I prefer to be cautious. Saying that we’ll qualify easily wouldn’t be the truth.

He adds: “We need to be at the start on Sunday to get some kilometers, and then we will learn more. But it is a difficult track. We have quite a few weaknesses, and probably this circuit and Barcelona will be challenging. The team seems to be doing a good job, and if it continues like this, the result won’t be so bad. That’s my feeling.”