Bourdais storms to Assen pole

The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing driver took his fifth pole of the season but felt he could have improved still further had he not been held up on his final run.

"I was pretty pissed at Robert [Doornbos] but he was explaining to me that there were four or five cars in front of him just suddenly slowing him," the Frenchman said.

"It seemed strange to me, because qualifying is not quite over, and I didn't know whether I might lose pole.

"I think that last lap was two tenths or a tenth-and-a-half quicker."

The reigning champion was 0.26 seconds quicker than his nearest rival and compatriot, PKV Racing's Tristan Gommendy.

The latter will start in third, though, as Justin Wilson took provisional pole position yesterday. Neel Jani will complete an all-PKV front row.

The third row is filled by last year's Champ Car Atlantic aces, Simon Pagenaud of Team Australia and Graham Rahal of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing.

Rahal's session was punctuated by two spins, otherwise he looked likely to be far closer than 0.6 seconds from teammate Bourdais.

Jan Heylen set his best grid position of the year with seventh, the Conquest Racing driver just 0.65 seconds off Bourdais's best.

This was also good enough to put Heylen ahead of Will Power (Team Australia) and the Minardi Team USA pair of Doornbos and Dan Clarke.

Forsythe Championship Racing flattered only to deceive. Oriol Servia was just 13th fastest, while Paul Tracy will start last after incurring suspension damage at the final chicane.

The 2003 champion explained: "Our driver coach told us that everyone was straightlining the final chicane over the cones. So I went over them, and one of them ripped off my front wing, shoved it under the car and bent a lower wishbone."

By the time Tracy was able to take to the track once more, he had only time for one lap with the tyres up to temperature, and that got blocked.

Pos  Driver            Team                       Time
 1.  S.Bourdais        Newman/Haas/Lanigan        1:18.765
 2.  Justin Wilson     RuSPORT                    1:19.710 + 0.945
 3.  Tristan Gommendy  PKV                        1:19.025 + 0.260
 4.  Neel Jani         PKV                        1:19.302 + 0.537
 5.  Simon Pagenaud    Team Australia             1:19.353 + 0.588
 6.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan        1:19.373 + 0.608
 7.  Jan Heylen        Conquest                   1:19.412 + 0.647
 8.  Will Power        Team Australia             1:19.415 + 0.650
 9.  Robert Doornbos   Minardi Team USA           1:19.612 + 0.847
10.  Dan Clarke        Minardi Team USA           1:19.718 + 0.953
11.  Bruno Junqueira   Dale Coyne                 1:19.813 + 1.048
12.  Alex Tagliani     Rocketsports               1:19.934 + 1.169
13.  Oriol Servia      Forsythe Championship      1:20.033 + 1.268
14.  Katherine Legge   Dale Coyne                 1:20.548 + 1.783
15.  Ryan Dalziel      Pacific Coast Motorsports  1:20.744 + 1.979
16.  Alex Figge        Pacific Coast Motorsports  1:21.039 + 2.274
17.  Paul Tracy        Forsythe Championship      1:22.936 + 4.171