Karthikeyan qualifies for A1 GP second round

Chengdu (China), Nov 8 (IANS) Narain Karthikeyan of Team India qualified ninth (Sprint Race) and 16th (Feature Race) for the second round of the A1 Grand Prix to be run here Sunday.

Karthikeyan clocked one minute, 16.553 seconds in the qualifying round for the sprint race, 1.130 seconds off the pole position and 1:17.218 for the feature event, 1:893 off the pace.

Team India missed the first round at Zandvoort, the Netherlands, due to delay in receiving the cars.

Adam Carroll claimed Ireland's first ever pole position for the Sprint race with a time of 1:15.423 sec while A1 Team Netherland's Robert Doornbos put in a great lap to start alongside Ireland on the front row of the grid with reigning champions Switzerland third.

Danny Watts took the Feature race pole position on his race debut for Great Britain with a blistering timing of 1:15.325 sec. Carroll put in another good performance to claim his second front row spot of the day, posting a time just 0.0.03 sec adrift of Watts in an incredibly close-fought session. Filipe Albuquerque's great run in the dying moments of the session boosted Portugal to third.