Saturday, May 28 2005 19:44 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Nurburgring (Germany): India's rookie Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan will start 19th on the grid while German driver Nick Heidfeld secured his first career pole position for tomorrow's (May 29, 2005) European Grand Prix.

A new qualifying format, introduced after last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, ensured pole position was confirmed Saturday ( after the Sunday morning session was scrapped and the grid decided on one single flying lap.

Karthikeyan, who clocked 1 minute, 36.192 seconds to be ahead of only Christijan Albers of Minardi said he had anticipated a difficult qualifying session today despite good practice in the morning.

"With a track really dirty with not much grip, I was the third driver to go in qualifying this afternoon so the circuit was still very dusty.

"Moreover, the track temperature was very high, I think it was close to 50 C, therefore my car was quite difficult to drive. I have also made a small mistake, which cost me some time. Now we will focus on improving the car for my first race in Nurburgring tomorrow."

Heidfeld of BMW-Williams claimed the pole position in 1:30.081 after an impeccable lap that put him ahead of an almost perfect Kimi Raikkonen of McLaren (1:30.197) and teammate Mark Webber (1:30.368).