Thanks to his excellent flying lap during the second qualifying segment, Narain Karthikeyan qualified fifth for the Sprint Race.

However, the Team India driver will start a lowly 18th in the Feature Race of the South African leg of the A1 GP on Sunday.

The Sprint qualifying at the Kyalami Circuit proved very competitive and so was Karthikeyan who came up with an excellent flying lap during the second qualifying segment, finishing fifth quickest.

He, however, was not equally lucky in the Feature race qualifying. During the first segment of the session, the Indian used a set of old tyres, saving his last set for the second segment.

Unfortunately, Team Brazil had a big shunt during the dying minutes of qualifying causing the session to be stopped for safety reasons. At that time, Karthikeyan was among the drivers who were out on track on their warm-up laps.

As the session was stopped, none of these drivers were able to complete their flying laps. This meant Karthikeyan will have to start the feature race from 18th place on the grid. "Im actually having mixed emotions," Karthikeyan later said.

"I very pleased that I was able to show, to some extent, the potential that the team has by qualifying fifth for the sprint race. The car feels much better. I'm really disappointed that I was not able to complete my final qualifying lap. I'm sure that we had the package for a strong qualifying for the feature race as well," he said.

Earlier, 2008 Formula One runner-up Felipe Massa turned up at the venue, backing the unique nation-versus-nation concept of A1GP. The 27-year-old had a close look at the Ferrari-powered cars and lapped the circuit in A1GP's Ferrari 599 safety car.