Narain Karthikeyan benefited from the downpour that wrecked the Formula One giants in opening qualifying on Saturday ahead of Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The Indian F1 rookie could only have reasonably expected to have three drivers behind him after a one minute 44.357 second lap in qualifying but instead he finished the session ninth quickest and with hopes of a better than expected position on the starting grid.
The 28-year-old Indian driver was one of the few beneficiaries of a dry track in qualifying, only for the heavens to open up and lash the last half of the session, rendering useless the hopes of king-pins Michael Schumacher, Juan Pablo Montoya, Rubens Barrichello, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso.
Karthikeyan could only dream of a seven-second advantage over Schumacher, yet he will take that into Sunday's final qualifying under the new format of aggregating results from the two sessions for the make-up of the grid.
"I am happy with what I have done, Karthikeyan said. "Obviously, I could have pushed a bit harder but I am learning step by step.
"Qualifying was a bit tricky for the rookies today as it was so slippery."
Yet again Karthikeyan had his moments in his first tilt at a F1 GP.
{{/usCountry}}Yet again Karthikeyan had his moments in his first tilt at a F1 GP.
{{/usCountry}}He had a one and half turn spin-out in his Jordan-Toyota car early in the first practice session Saturday before he lasted just six laps and fish-tailed out of a turn and had his rear wheels bogged in wet grass.
Karthikeyan quickly jumped out of the car when flames were visible at the rear of the machine and were extinguished by a track marshall. He took no further part in the session.
Jordan team director Trevor Carlin admitted his drivers had luck on their side in qualifying, but could not expect to stay in ninth place in Sunday's final qualifying.
"It is a great start. It is nice to be ninth even though we would be very lucky to finish there tomorrow," he said.
Jordan, taken over in the off-season by Russian Alex Shnaider, have been struggling with reliability problems this week and given fine conditions will find it difficult to keep up with the pack in Sunday's race.
Karthikeyan, whose life has been in a whirl since joining Jordan last month as India's first F1 driver, was fined $6,750 by stewards for exceeding the pit lane speed limit during opening practice Friday.
Karthikeyan admitted he has been under pressure as he tries to fit in with the big boys in F1 with millions of new converts watching his every move back home.