Sunday, June 12 2005 12:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Montreal: India's Narain Karthikeyan maintained his 17th place with a clean enough lap in the qualifying session while Jenson Button of Bar Honda claimed the pole position on the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

Karthikeyan was the sixth driver to leave for the single lap qualifying session setting a time of 1 minute 18.664 minutes ahead of his team mate Tiago Monteiro of Portugal, finished 18th overall in the new "one-session-only" format.

Button scored a time of 1:15.217 for second pole of his career ahead of Ferrari's Michael Schumacher (1:15.475) and Renault's Fernando Alonso (1:15.561).

The Jordan Grand Prix Team quickly fixed the gearbox censor problems after the Indian, under fire from his boss Collin Koles, had scored a good looking 17th place in the third and fourth free practice sessions.

"A good sign for the race tomorrow. I am confident that I will have a reliable car for tomorrow's 70-lap race. It will be long and challenging even if I am very resistant and used to the high temperatures," Karthikeyan said.

The 28-year-old Jordan driver also said he was satisfied with his time and that he drove a smooth and error-free lap.

"Today, my qualifying time was ok. I think I did a clean enough lap. It was important to push hard. I had an impression that the track has changed quite a lot since this morning, it was a bit more slippery and the track temperature was higher.

"Just like yesterday, with this temperature, it is also very hard on the brakes. I hope that with the team we have made the right choice of Bridgestone tyres and that we will have a good race tomorrow."