Gordon Kirby's Cleveland qualifying analysis

Over the years, Moreno has spent four years in Formula 1 and six in CART, but has never had a regular full-time ride with a top team until this year with Patrick Racing. At 41, the Brazilian veteran has finally discarded his 'supersub' moniker and has moved to the top of the point standings with a series of solidly consistent performances, a competitive runner in almost every race.

"I'd like to thank everybody who has stood behind me and supported me through my career," Moreno intoned after taking the pole in Cleveland. "I believe 1988 was the last time I had a pole in F3000 when everybody was fighting for thousandths of a second, just like today."

Moreno turned his pole-winning lap with about five minutes to go in the final session. A lap later he spun, bringing out a red flag.

"The computer showed I had a better lap going," Moreno said. "Halfway through the lap I was two-tenths faster, but I tried just a bit too much and spun."

The final five minutes gave everyone else a chance to beat Moreno, but the only man able to improve was Gil de Ferran, who jumped from tenth to second. Portland winner de Ferran has been very competitive all weekend, but was unable to get a clear lap on both sets of tyres in the final qualifying session. De Ferran didn't get an unobstructed lap until the closing minutes, after the red flag for Moreno's spin.

"I simply couldn't get a clear lap," de Ferran said. "It's just the breaks of the game, but it's very frustrating. When the red came on I hadn't done a time and I had more than 10 laps on the tyres. After you've stopped and cooled them off, the tyres are never as good. It was a tough one because I knew I was nowhere, so I could not make a mistake. I was a little tense and a bit adventurous at the last chicane, but I picked up a little time there."

De Ferran was just under a tenth of a second shy of Moreno's hot lap with four more drivers following within another tenth! Champ Car racing is so competitive in fact, that the top ten qualifiers were covered by less than three-tenths of a second and the fastest sixteen by less than one second.

An impressive third fastest was Mauricio Gugelmin, who produced by far his best qualifying run of the season so far. Gugelmin's best previous qualifying run this year was seventh in Japan, but helped by a special Mercedes-Benz qualifying engine he was able to challenge for the pole in Cleveland. Gugelmin beat Michael Andretti, Cristiano da Matta and Juan Montoya, so there were four different engines in the top five: Ford-Honda-Mercedes-Ford-Toyota.

Gugelmin said he would have gone a little quicker on his last lap only to run out of fuel. "I was the last car not to get the chequered flag," Gugelmin said. "I was going for it and we were looking good on the computer for a quick lap, but I ran out of fuel coming into the last chicane."

Nevertheless, Gugelmin completed a Brazilian sweep of the top three, the first time in Champ Car history that's happened. This follows on the heels of the first Brazilian one-two-three sweep in a race at Portland last weekend.

Da Matta and Montoya flew Toyota's flag by qualifying fifth and sixth. This is also da Matta's best qualifying performance in CART and comes after a very strong race in Portland last week. Montoya, meanwhile, has struggled most of the weekend in Cleveland, but appears to have found the right combination for the race.

"The car is much better," Montoya said. "With the changes we made today, it now feels like a race car. We've got a strong car for tomorrow."

The top 10 were completed by Bryan Herta, Dario Franchitti, Adrian Fernandez and Helio Castroneves. Herta is filling in for the injured Tony Kanaan in Mo Nunn's car and did a great job, qualifying seventh, only a third of a second away from pole. Franchitti fell from fastest on Friday to eighth today and complained that his car was unstable on the bumps which predominate at Cleveland.