Karthikeyan qualifies at P3 for feature race

New Delhi, Dec 15 (UNI) A spectacular performance from speed master Narain Karthikeyan saw A1 Team India come up with its best performance till date in the qualifying session today at Zhuhai International Circuit, China, placing it third for the feature race and eighth for the sprint race.

With a lap time of 1:23.767 seconds, Karthikeyan took A1 Team India to its best ever qualifying standing in the feature race at 3rd place. With only 0.302 seconds separating him from race winner Neel Jani of A1 Team Switzerland, Karthikeyan drove hard and put A1 Team India at P3 for tomorrow's feature race.

For the Sprint race, A1 Team India qualified 9th with a lap time of 1:23.972 seconds, 0.769 seconds behind A1 Team Germany's Michael Ammermuller who will take pole position for the Sprint race tomorrow.

Karthikeyan, after his performance said, ''We got to know the car better today and this showed in our best ever qualifying position.

We are heading in the right direction and have to keep up the performance.'' ''We had a good lap although the brakes are still a little nervous. We qualified in the top 10 for the Sprint race, the engineer took a good call on the mechanical set up and we made good time by the next session. We are looking good for tomorrow's race,'' he added.

UNI