Narain Karthikeyan on Saturday walked out of an accident during practice unhurt and put up a strong show to qualify 19th in the Italian Grand Prix.
Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya took the pole position for Sunday's race, but McLaren missed out on a 1-2 start after Kimi Raikkonen was forced to change his engine, suffering a penalty of 10 grid positions.
Spaniard Fernando Alonso should breathe somewhat easy after qualifying for the second position in his Renault.
Karthikeyan had a spin at the end of the morning practice session, which caused a fair amount of damage to his car.
His mechanics did a fantastic job to repair his race car on time for qualifying, in which Tiago Monteiro of Portugal and Karthikeyan had clean laps.
Monteiro will start from the 17th position for tomorrow's race at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza circuit.
After making smooth progress in their preparations on Friday, Karthikeyan and Monteiro continued to work on developing a suitable chassis balance for the high-speed, low-downforce requirements of Monza.
Karthikeyan said he still felt sore after the accident in the morning.
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"I am still feeling a bit sore. The mechanics worked really hard to fix the car and they did a great job. However, in qualifying, the car was a bit unstable so we decided to take it a bit easier.
"Nevertheless, I am pretty confident for tomorrow's race."
Monteiro said his new Jordan-Toyota EJ15B felt "OK" but Monza was not the right track to judge the car's performance.
"I am quite satisfied with my lap in qualifying today. The new car felt OK, however Monza is not the easiest track to gain a greater benefit but we had more stability in the entry of the corners," he said.
"We are looking forward to tracks with more downforce where we will be able to use the advantage we have with the new package.
"Here the track is tricky for everyone as the low downforce set-up naturally makes the car a bit unstable. I am happy with the new car and we know there is still much more to come."
Qualifying results:
1. Juan Pablo Montoya, Colombia, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:21.054
2. Fernando Alonso, Spain, Renault, 1:21.319
3. Jenson Button, Britain, BAR-Honda, 1:21.369
4. Takuma Sato, Japan, BAR-Honda, 1:21.477
5. Jarno Trulli, Italy, Toyota, 1:21.640
6. Michael Schumacher, Germany, Ferrari, 1:21.721
7. Rubens Barrichello, Brazil, Ferrari, 1:21.962
8. Giacarlo Fisichella, Italy, Renault, 1:22.068
9. Ralf Schumacher, Germany, Toyota, 1:22.266
10. David Coulthard, Britain, Red Bull-Cosworth, 1:22304
11. Kimi Raikkonen, Finland, McLaren-Mercedes, 1:20.878
12. Jacques Villeneuve, Canada, Sauber-Petronas, 1:22.356
13. Christian Klien, Austria, RedBull-Cosworth, 1:22.532
14. Mark Webber, Australia, Williams-BMW, 1:22.560
15. Felipe Massa, Brazil, Sauber-Petronas, 1:23.060
16. Antonio Pizzonia, Brazil, Williams-BMW, 1:23.291
17. Tiego Monteiro, Portugal, Joran-Toyota, 1:24.666
18. Robert Doornbos, Monaco, Minardi-Cosworth, 1:24.904
19. Narain Karthikeyan, India, Jordan-Toyota, 1:25.859
20. Christijan Albers, Netherlands, Minardi-Cosworth, 1:26.964
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