Narain rocks at Jerez (Winter Testing)

On a cold winter morning, somewhere in Spain, Narain Karthikeyan set the tracks ablaze, with a scintillating 1:19:171. While the fastest man today was Narain's former nemesis Fred Montagny, Narain emerged as the fastest among those who ran on V8 engines.

Though none of the stalwarts of 2005 including Schumacher, Raikkonen, Alonso & Fissichella tested today at Jerez, it is of note that the line-up included one-lap wonder Mark Webber, the maverick Montoya, new scape-goat elect Massa, quick(alleged) Nick, bulls-eye Rosa and the freakishly fast Finn Heikki Kovalainen.

Although Karthikeyan (thanks to the flag) was able to put in only thirty-seven laps as opposed to forty-six from Webber, being almost a second faster must have raised a few eye-brows in the paddock. And not to mention that Narain had outpaced Nico Rosberg in a previous testing session at Jerez.

And ofcourse, a special mention to the Cosworth engines, bringing nostalgic moments from the early 90's, when a certain Mr. Schumacher won his first world championship with a Benetton-Cosworth.

This being his last test with Williams F1 until further notice, Narain has signed off in sizzling style. We can only hope that he gets the third cum test driver role at Williams.