Team Impul Hoshino Racing’s Narain is backed by Tata Sons and Tata Motors. Hos qualification placed him a tenth behind 24-hour Le Mans winner and World Endurance champion, André Lotterer of Team Tom’s Toyota.

“It is incredible to qualify on the front row on the first weekend of the season, considering the competition. We managed to improve bit by bit over the weekend and hopefully will be in a good place for the race”, said Karthikeyan.

Former Force India reserve driver James Rossiter was 4th while 2010 series champion and Narain’s Team Impul teammate João Paulo de Oliveira qualified 5th.

Super Formula runs on a knockout-based qualifying format with Q1, Q2 & Q3 sessions to determine race day final grid positions for the 43-lap, 250km long race on Sunday.

“The Tom’s drivers (Lotterer and Nakajima) have been in a class of their own throughout the weekend so splitting them is incredibly satisfying. Just four-tenths cover the top five so it very close at the front”, said Narain.

“The car is amazing, great to drive and it will be a long race with pitstops for fuel and tyres, so quite a bit of strategy is involved. We hope that everything goes to plan and come away with a strong result on the first weekend of the season”, he added.

2014 Super Formula, Round 1, Suzuka Circuit

Qualifying results:

Position Driver Laptime

1 André Lotterer 1’37.022

2 Narain Karthikeyan 1’37.148

3 Kazuki Nakajima 1’37.159

4 James Rossiter 1’37.284

5 J P De Oliveira 1’37.399

6 Hiroaki Ishiura 1’37.404

7 Loic Duval 1’37.543

8 Tomoki Nojiri 1’39.380

9 Naoki Yamamoto 1’38.086

10 Hideki Mutoh 1’38.108

11 Ryo Hirakawa 1’38.127

12 Yuji Kunimoto 1’38.223

13 Yuichi Nakayama 1’38.260

14 Koudai Tsukakoshi 1’38.509

15 Vitantonio Liuzzi 1’38.908

16 Takashi Kogure 1’39.063

17 Yuhki Nakayama 1’39.109

18 Daisuke Nakajima 1’39.113

19 Koki Saga 1’39.615

2014 Super Formula Calendar