Clarke takes shock provisional pole

Clarke's CTE Racing HVM team switched him onto slicks, and the Briton vaulted to the top of the timing screens.

Though he (and Mario Dominguez) ran the chequered flag and did an extra lap, this is likely to result in fines for each rather than the loss of their fastest laps.

"We were sideways every corner," said Clarke, "it was great fun, like driving a '70s grand prix car.

"I kept thinking someone else would have had it figured out, and they'd be chasing my times. So I kept pushing harder, getting more heat in my tyres and going faster."

Charles Zwolsman clinched an equally remarkable second place with similar tactics, that saw him squirreling over the wet patches but keeping it altogether, though half a second short of Clarke's best.

He pointed out: "The worst wet patches are under the bridges, and they're just over some of the turn-in points for the corners, so that makes the car nervous."

Quickest man on wet tyres, and third overall, was Alex Tagliani, who was fighting for pole in the wet. His Team Australia team-mate Will Power was also swift, but got bumped down the order by Clarke and Zwolsman, winding up seventh.

The three championship contenders AJ Allmendinger, Sebastien Bourdais and Justin Wilson filled positions four to six, while British rookie Katherine Legge performed superbly to clock eighth fastest time for PKV Racing.

Bruno Junqueira and Paul Tracy didn't get out when the track was at its best and wound up 10th and 11th, well behind their Newman/Haas and Forsythe team-mates.

Friday qualifying times:

Pos  Driver              Team                Time
 1.  Dan Clarke          CTE-HVM         1:55.123
 2.  Charles Zwolsman    Conquest        1:55.599  + 0.476
 3.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia  1:57.517  + 2.394
 4.  AJ Allmendinger     Forsythe        1:58.507  + 3.384
 5.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas     1:58.945  + 3.822
 6.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT         1:59.076  + 3.953
 7.  Will Power          Team Australia  1:59.286  + 4.163
 8.  Katherine Legge     PKV             1:59.388  + 4.265
 9.  Andrew Ranger       Conquest        1:59.486  + 4.313
10.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman/Haas     1:59.977  + 4.854
11.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe        2:00.165  + 5.042
12.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne      2:00.835  + 5.712
13.  Oriol Servia        PKV             2:01.082  + 5.959
14.  Tonis Kasemets      Rocketsports    2:01.381  + 6.258
15.  Mario Dominguez     Rocketsports    2:01.582  + 6.759
16.  Nelson Philippe     CTE-HVM         2:02.273  + 7.150
17.  Juan Caceras        Dale Coyne      2:03.690  + 8.567