Karthikeyan clinches third place

India's motor racing ace Narain Karthikeyan drove spectacularly to clinch his first podium finish in the 2002 Telefonica Nissan World Series in Jarama, Spain, on Sunday.

Starting from eighth position on the grid, 25-year-old displayed his race-craft to finish third in the 26-lap Race Two of the double-leg second round, in a time of 41 minutes 14.746 seconds.

Brazil's Ricardo Zonta (40.47.575) of Gabord Competicion was first and Bas Leinders of Belgium, racing for team KTR, finished second in 41.08.076.

"It's great to finish on the podium so early in the championship. Now we have to improve the car for pace and for better qualifying times," the Tata RC Motorsports driver said.

"This is a very good performance for me. I had a good start in the second race and overtook a few people and am very pleased with how I finished."

Karthikeyan earlier had to contend with a ninth place finish in Race One in which he had to drive most of the 18 laps with a damaged front wing.

The effort was commendable as inclement weather forced his team to change the set-up of the Super Nissan Dallara 3.0 V6-415 hp car at the last minute.

Last month, in the first leg in Valencia, Spain, Karthikeyan finished 10th in the opening race but went out of the second race at the first corner after starting second on the grid.