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Narain Karthikeyan suffers setback

Narain Karthikeyan's Formula One hopes tooka bit of a dent, following a disqualification for technical infringement in a qualifying Formula III race.

Jenson Button is on provisional pole after the first qualifying session for Round 9 of the Championship, to held on Saturday afternoon after F1 qualifying and the F3000 race.

Button was the pacesetter throughout the session and at one time had an advantage of nearly half a second, but later on the half hour, the gap was closed right down by Luciano Burti and Marc Hynes.

Narain Karthikeyan was fourth fastest, following the disqualification, he now has to start all over again tomorrow. However, the good news from his point of view is that the weather is good, and the track is expected to be faster -- conditions the Indian ace likes.

Grid positions for Saturday's race will be decided by two 30-minute timed qualifying sessions, at 12.30 today and 15.20 tomorrow. Saturday's race is scheduled to start at 17.30.

The 15-lap (48-miles) Formula Three race starts at 17.30 on Saturday, July 10 and is round 9 of the 16-race championship.