Monza: Narain Karthikeyan’s hopes of rounding off his debut Formula One season on a high note received a blow when he lost out on the chance to drive the new Jordan-Toyota EJB15 at the weekend’s Italian Grand Prix to teammate Tiago Monteiro (as reported briefly in Saturday’s Late City edition).

The existing model, Jordan-Toyota EJ15, that both drivers have driven this year actually is from 2004, and does not match the 2005 specifications. As such, they had to battle for the wooden spoon .

The decision as to who should drive the improved version was decided by a toss at the Monza circuit as the scale of performance was evenly balanced. Whereas Narain had the speed to his name, Monteiro had the reliability factor going in his favour after a 14 out of 14 finish this season.

Now, the Indian will have to race the remaining five races with a car that had put up so far four ‘did not finish’ shows, owing to mechanical and electrical failures.

Monteiro tested the car on Thursday and completed 47 laps while the team’s test drivers Nicky Pastorelli and Nicolas Kiesa also drove the new car. (PTI)