Narain Karthikeyan [Images] continued with his impressive performance on the Jordan-Toyota EJ15B to qualify in the 15th position on Saturday for the season-ending Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.

"I had a clean lap. The balance of the car is good. We are ready for the race," said the 28-year old Indian after clocking a superb 1 minute and 36.707 seconds to finish ahead of former world champion Jacques Villeneuve (16th) in Sauber Petronas and BAR Honda's Takumo Sato (17th).

Karthikeyan's teammate Tiago Monteiro battled hard to get the right combination of car balance and tyres to finish 19th.

Fernando Alonso [Images], who has already secured the world championship, claimed the pole followed by his Renault's team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella. McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen [Images] was third.

Commenting on the session, Karthikeyan said, "I did a very good qualifying lap even though I have lost a little bit of time compared to this morning.

"Nevertheless, we are satisfied with the balance of the car. I think we also have chosen the right Bridgestone tyre compound for the race."

"Hopefully we can have a good Grand Prix out of it tomorrow. It will be interesting because there are several places for overtaking here," said Karthikeyan.

It will be an emotional moment for the Jordan team when the two cars start from the grid on Sunday as this would be the last race under its current name of Jordan Grand Prix.

The Silverstone-based team will be renamed as Jordan Midlands from next year, signalling the full takeover by Canadian-Russian business tycoon Alex Schneider.

In its 15 years of Formula One racing, Jordan has achieved four wins. Jordan has also claimed the podium on 19 other occasions, the latest being Tiago Monteiro in the third place at the US Grand Prix this year.

Team Jordan has also scored two pole positions and a total of 291 points in its history.

The British outfit has also served as a launchpad for many champion drivers including seven-time winner Michael Schumacher [Images].

Qualifying result:

1.  Fernando Alonso (Spain)          Renault   1:34.080
  2.  Giancarlo Fisichella (Italy [Images])     Renault   1:34.401
  3.  Kimi Raikkonen (Finland)         McLaren   1:34.488
  4.  Jenson Button [Images] (Britain)          BAR       1:34.801
  5.  Juan Pablo Montoya [Images] (Colombia)    McLaren   1:35.188
  6.  Michael Schumacher (Germany [Images])     Ferrari [Images]   1:35.301
  7.  David Coulthard (Britain)        Red Bull  1:35.428
  8.  Rubens Barrichello (Brazil [Images])      Ferrari   1:35.610
  9.  Ralf Schumacher (Germany)        Toyota    1:35.723
 10.  Mark Webber [Images] (Australia)          Williams  1:35.739
 11.  Felipe Massa [Images] (Brazil)            Sauber    1:35.898
 12.  Jarno Trulli (Italy)             Toyota    1:36.044
 13.  Antonio Pizzonia (Brazil)        Williams  1:36.445
 14.  Christian Klien (Austria)        Red Bull  1:36.472
 15.  Narain Karthikeyan (India)       Jordan    1:36.707
 16.  Jacques Villeneuve (Canada [Images])      Sauber    1:36.788
 17.  Takuma Sato (Japan [Images])              BAR       1:37.083
 18.  Christijan Albers (Netherlands)  Minardi   1:39.105
 19.  Tiago Monteiro (Portugal)        Jordan    1:39.233
 20.  Robert Doornbos (Netherlands)    Minardi   1:39.460

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