Castroneves retains Laguna pole
Marlboro Team Penske remained in charge after the final qualifying session for the Honda Grand Prix of Monterey
Helio Castroneves and Gil de Ferran secured their third front row lock-out of the season as the first day's times proved unbeatable.
Dario Franchitti was third for Team KOOL Green, ahead of star returnee and track specialist Bryan Herta in a satellite Forsythe Reynard-Ford (see separate story.)
Kenny Brack secured fifth despite his Team Rahal Reynard suffering a gearbox failure right at the end of the session. Juan Montoya equalled the Swede's time but having set his lap earlier he dropped to sixth under the CART rules, despite hustling his Ganassi Lola spectacularly around the course.
Mauricio Gugelmin brought some cheer to Mercedes by qualifying seventh on the day that the German company announced its impending departure from the CART series.
Apart from de Ferran, the title contenders struggled. Michael Andretti was 11th, two places ahead of Vancouver winner Paul Tracy, who crashed in morning practice. The Patrick duo also lagged well down the order, Adrian Fernandez and Roberto Moreno only 17th and 19th quickest.
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