Narain Karthikeyan qualifies on front row at Suzuka

Narain Karthikeyan made a promising start to his 2015 Super Formula campaign by qualifying second for the season opener at the historic Suzuka Circuit here today.
The Indian, driving for Team Dandelion Racing, put in a lap time of 1:38.870s, just 0.285s off the pole position time of 2013 champion Naoki Yamamoto.
With just one practice session scheduled before the qualifying, Karthikeyan was quick to adapt to the conditions -- Suzuka being one of his favourite venues.
The Indian, in fact, looked poised for the pole position, but an error on his Q3 run denied him the chance. He was the quickest driver in Q2 (by over 0.3 seconds) but could not improve on that in Q3 whereas Yamamoto managed to improve significantly to wrest the pole position from the Indian.

"It was a great session and very tight -- ultimately we just fell short but I would be lying if I say I was not slightly disappointed because pole was possible today," said Karthikeyan.
"I love driving at Suzuka, this time last year we were on the front row as well. Today the car felt great straightaway so I am hoping for a strong result in the race," he added, referring to the incident last year which had put him out of contention.

In terms of manufacturers, Honda has worked hard to improve the engine over the winter with both the front row qualifiers being Honda-powered cars but seven of the top 10 are still Toyota-powered.

Karthikeyan's Dandelion teammate Tomoki Nojiri qualified seventh. Former F1 podium finisher Kamui Kobayashi was 10th while reigning champion Kazuki Nakajima qualified fifth with his teammate Andre Lotterer third.
Tomorrow's race distance will be 43 laps/250 km with fuel and tyre stops, so strategy is expected to be critical, with Suzuka always surprising on the weather front as well.
For the 2015 season, the Super Formula series is scheduled to run eight rounds across Japan, including yet another F1 venue with Okayama International Circuit joining Suzuka and Fuji Speedway.