Bourdais loses pole to Power

The Frenchman lost his fastest lap, demoting him to second on the grid and leaving Power with his second pole position of the season.

Tony Cotman, Champ Car's vice president of operations, stated: "No. 1 car [Bourdais] was running slow through one segment of the track and held up No. 5 [Power] considerably, affecting one of his flying laps.

"Bourdais let Justin Wilson and Oriol Servia through and then moved back on line as Power arrived. In that segment of the track, he was 2.5-3 seconds off the pace.

"If it had been three tenths then no problem, but when you're going that much slower you need to be considerate to others sharing the track.

"We had already spotted the incident and reviewed the data and the video. Incidents like this are common through qualifying, especially on such a short track, but I believe my judgement is correct. I know Sebastien doesn't agree."

Ironically, Power was one of two drivers who angered Bourdais' teammate Graham Rahal, who was convinced that Power and Robert Doornbos of Minardi ruined his final flying lap.

Cotman refuted this, however. "Graham has an on-board camera this week, and we watched the incident he was describing. Power was well off line and out of the way."

Alex Tagliani was also docked his fastest lap for rejoining the circuit in an unsafe manner.

"Tagliani went into a run-off and came out on track in front of another car," Cotman explained. "It had strong echoes of what Paul Tracy did to Tag during the race in San Jose last year."

Tagliani's loss of his fastest lap does not alter his grid position, however, and he will start tomorrow's race from 11th.