Bourdais grabs Denver pole
A remarkably unremarkable qualifying session for Sunday's Grand Prix of Denver presented by Bridgestone saw Sebastien Bourdais clinch pole position, a full quarter of a second ahead of AJ Allmendinger, who in turn was a full half-second ahead of Justin Wilson
The French Newman/Haas driver, who scored his greatest Champ Car victory here in Denver back in 2004, never looked under threat once it was established that cooler track temperatures had given the softer red-walled tyres a notable advantage for the first time this weekend.
Although he brushed the wall, necessitating a pitstop, Bourdais had already set pole in 59.130 seconds. But he threw salt in the wounded egos of his rivals by throwing in a 59.096 seconds effort on his final run.
As ever, Paul Tracy was the pace-setter on black tyres. As ever, his Forsythe car's performance rapidly plateaued on the softer reds, and he was only able to salvage fourth, 0.025 seconds off pipping Wilson's RuSPORT car.
Team Australia had a relatively straightforward session, and Alex Tagliani nailed fifth, the last man to break the minute barrier around this 1.675-mile nine-turn track.
Canadian compatriot Andrew Ranger confirmed Conquest's promise with a fine sixth.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Sebastien Bourdais Newman Haas 59.096 25 2. A.J. Allmendinger Forsythe Championship 59.350 + 0.254 25 3. Justin Wilson RuSPORT 59.878 + 0.782 28 4. Paul Tracy Forsythe Championship 59.903 + 0.807 19 5. Alex Tagliani Team Australia 59.919 + 0.823 28 6. Andrew Ranger Mi-Jack Conquest 1:00.007 + 0.911 28 7. Bruno Junqueira Newman Haas 1:00.029 + 0.933 26 8. Oriol Servia PKV 1:00.096 + 1.000 27 9. Mario Dominguez Dale Coyne 1:00.147 + 1.051 30 10. Nelson Philippe CTE HVM 1:00.333 + 1.237 29 11. Will Power Team Australia 1:00.405 + 1.309 29 12. Charles Zwolsman Mi-Jack Conquest 1:00.453 + 1.357 28 13. Dan Clarke CTE HVM 1:00.887 + 1.791 29 14. Jan Heylen Dale Coyne 1:01.201 + 2.105 27 15. Katherine Legge PKV 1:01.370 + 2.274 30 16. Nicky Pastorelli Rocketsports 1:03.472 + 4.376 27
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