A1 Team India put up best show in Zhuhai

NEW DELHI: With Narain Karthikeyan scorching the Zhuhai International Circuit, A1 Team India came up with its best performance till date to qualify third for the Feature Race and ninth in the Sprint Race in China on Saturday.
    
Karthikeyan, who is without a formula one team after Williams replaced him with Germany's Nico Hulkenberg as its new test driver, raced like a man possessed and put in a sensational lap in Q4 to secure third position on the grid.
    
His blistering pace would make Karthikeyan the man to watch on Sunday.
    
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 third place with only 0.302 seconds separating him from race winner Neel Jani of A1 Team Switzerland.
    
For the Sprint race, A1 Team India qualified ninth with a lap time of 1:23.972 seconds, 0.769 seconds behind A1 Team Germany's Michael Ammermuller who will take pole position on Sunday.
    
Karthikeyan was elated with the result but was not ready for celebration yet.
    
"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 tomorrows race," he said.