Castroneves snatches pole at damp Long Beach

A brief shower during the 15-minute break between qualifying groups looked set to turn the starting order on its head, but in the end, the track dried out enough for the second group to post the fastest times of the day.

Castroneves claimed the pole in his last lap of the session in his Team Penske Reynard-Honda, beating Team Rahal's Kenny Brack by just 0.541s. Tony Kanaan was third for the Mo Nunn team, while the second row was filled by Mexico winner Cristiano da Matta in his Newman-Haas Lola.

Castroneves blamed a damp circuit for his pole lap being more than a second slower than Gil de Ferran's track record set last year.

"When the sun came out near the end of the session, I knew the last cars on the track would be fastest," he said after taking his fifth career Champ Car pole. "Fortunately, I was one of the last ones out. The strategy was great from the team. I've never had such a clear track, there was no traffic at all.

"It was especially tough because the track was never 100 percent dry. There was a big puddle of water in Turn 9, and there was a transition between concrete and asphalt at the same place that made it like driving on ice. That's the only part of the track that concerned me."

The surprise of the session came from Michael Jourdain Jr, who led the first qualifying group with a lap of 1m09.589s. After the rain during the break, Jourdain was looking good for his first career pole. But the rain stopped and the racing line dried constantly throughout the second 30-minute session.

Brack put in two consecutive quick laps near the end of the session and had a shot to knock Castroneves off the pole on his final lap. But he made a mistake and went down an escape road.

"It was anyone's guess what the weather would do," said Brack. "We were hoping the first group would dry the track, but at the beginning of our session, it looked like they would be the lucky ones this time. I was surprised how fast the track dried out, and when Michael Andretti went on to slicks and went faster, we did too.

"In the end it came down to who had the last lap, and I braked a little too late on mine and went straight on instead of making a corner, so that was it for us. But I'm happy for Team Rahal because we've had an up-and-down weekend with small glitches here and there."

Tony Kanaan maintained his strong Friday form to earn his best starting position in over a year. He credited the Honda engine and his new team mate Alex Zanardi for his return to form. Zanardi was in the first group, when conditions were slightly wetter, and he ended up 20th.

"It was pretty much who did the lap when," said Kanaan. "The Honda engine is a good advantage here. This year, we have everything we need after it was a big struggle last year, with all the problems we had. Alex was also a big plus. I learned a lot from him this weekend, and I'm sorry he couldn't be up here with me because of the conditions."

Cristiano da Matta made a dramatic late improvement to jump up to fourth, while defending pole winner de Ferran briefly jumped to the top spot near the end of the session, but he ended up an unhappy fifth after encountering traffic on his last two laps. He was joined on the third row by Team Kool Green's Dario Franchitti, while the top 10 was rounded out by Jourdain, Jimmy Vasser, Andretti and Fittipaldi.

Franchitti's team mate and defending Long Beach champion Paul Tracy qualified 12th and said, "At least it's better than last year when we were 17th."


Click here for the qualifying result.