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Accidents dog Narain's tracks in Holland

A British team won the Marlboro Masters this Sunday at the Zandvoort Circuit in Holland, beating the best teams and drivers from France, Italy and Germany.

Narain Karthikeyan of India was unable to make much headway from his 16th place on the grid, despite being fastest on the track in the morning warm-up before a light spin saw him return to the pits.

As usual, India's finest got a good start in his Kingfisher, TATA, Mobil 1 Dallara taking 3 cars before the first bend - the notorious Tarzan hairpin curve - and had moved up to 12th by lap 3, but an incident with South African driver Toby Scheckter, who hit his car in the rear sending him off the circuit, effectively finished any chance of Karthikeyan getting into the top six.

Karthikeyan rejoined the track in 15th place and finished 13th, whilst Scheckter went on to finish 8th overall. The honour of race winner went to Marc Hynes whilst Jenson Button, who is lying 4th in the British series behind Karthikeyan, came home in 5th place from 12th on the grid. Many of Europe's top drivers left the circuit dissapointed with their results in this event, the most prestigious on the European calendar. Jenson Button took Austrian hot-shoe Robert Lechner out of contention on his way to the finish, spinning him in a similar move made by Scheckter on Karthikeyan, whilst Carlin Motorsport's second driver, Frenchman Jeremie Dufour, failed to make the cut into the main race after Saturday's qualifying race.

Holland cheered their local hero, Christijan Albers home in 4th place, following Germany's Thomas Mutcsch and South African Etienne Van De Linde.

Mugen Honda engines, who had only managed to get 1 car into the top 8 in qualifying, proved their worth in the race powering Marc Hyne's car off the start line in dominant fashion.

The British Formula 3 series continues next weekend with a visit to the Welsh circuit of Pembrey for a two race event. Narain Karthikeyan is a favourite to win at this twisty circuit, heading the time sheets there last week in front of current series leader Luciano Burti.

The Zandvoort event saw Karthikeyan competing against 48 other top Formula 3 drivers in the famous Marlboro Masters Race around a fast, 4.3 kilometer track, featuring average lap speeds of 165 kph.

The event got off to a bad start for India's fastest driver when his car crashed into the track barriers at the Hugenholtzbocht curve, tearing off the left rear corner which smashed into the engine intake system and destroyed the rear wind and underfloor of his Kingfisher Mobil TATA Dallara. Although this happened in untimed practice the day before the race, the extent of the damage was so severe that his Carlin Motorsport crew struggled against the clock to repair his car in time for the first official qualifying session.

As the pit lane opened for the assembled cars, Karthikeyan was still waiting anxiously as his crew worked tirelessly to ready the car. With just 20 minutes of the session remaining, Karthikeyan took to the track and within a few laps was running fourth quickest just behind his rival from the British F3 series, Jenson Button. Robert Lechner of Germany led the field for provisional pole but all these drivers were bumped down the grid as South Africa's Etienne van de Linde and Sebastian Bourdais of France posted faster times. By the end of the session, Karthikeyan's time was good enough for only 8th quickest and was 6/10ths of a second off the pole.

Narain Karthikeyan said: "It was a stupid mistake earlier which has cost me dearly. I had oversteered when the car turned into the corner - the back steps out and slides - and it was controllable but too slow. I just pushed too hard and hit the barriers. The repaired car was better but still oversteering a little and it has to be almost perfect to go for the pole. I have another chance in second qualifying tomorrow and my engineers will be working on solutions tonight"

The cars are qualified in two heats for the race here - so 8th in session equates to a lowly 16th on the grid - not a place that Narain is used to. He comes to this event second only to Marc Hynes from the British contingent and was clearly mindful of the fact that Hynes managed to line up for a provisional 2nd row slot.