Karthikeyan puts up India's best-ever show in A1; qualifies 5th

Shanghai, Apr 14 (UNI) A1 Team India driver and F1 test driver Narain Karthikeyan secured country's best-ever qualifying slot in the A1GP series today when he finished fifth in the race to pole here at International circuit.

Karthikeyan put in another strong performance in final practice and then set his fastest time of the weekend to clinch fifth spot on the grid for tomorrow's Sprint race.

Team India's final practice session went well, with the team confirming their quick pace, recording the fourth quickest time in all three practice sessions.

Karthikeyan picked up the pace further in A1GP's unique four segment qualifying session, setting his two fastest laps of the weekend on his third and fourth laps.

These two fastest times were then combined to determine the team's fifth place on the grid.

''I'm pleased, it's the best ever qualifying result for India, but we still need to get the best out of the tyres and the car during qualifying. I think we have a much better race car than qualifying car,'' he said later.

UNI