Kanaan sets the pace for new team

Kanaan recovered from a pitlane accident in the morning practice which damaged his car and forced him to run his spare car in the afternoon session. Despite a lack of track time Kanaan turned in the quick lap of the afternoon and showed that Mo Nunn's new team should be a contender this year.


The wind blew hard so nobody was able to produce superfast times. After his morning problems, Kanaan decided to make a dummy qualifying run in the afternoon in order to get a feel for where he stood. Kanaan downplayed his fast time of day.


"We decided to try a qualifying run in the wind, then we went to work on our race set-up," Kanaan said. "We have a lot of a work of to do. The team is only three months old and we've only done five days of testing so far. We want to keep our feet on the ground. We just want to try to finish this race."


Now fewer than 14 drivers lapped within half a second of Kanaan with the fastest 20 covered by just one second. Championship favorite Michael Andretti was fifth fastest today, concentrating on his race set-up rather than looking for qualifying speed. Andretti remained confident of his chances.


"The car was good on long runs, and we're still working on making the car comfortable," Andretti said. "I'm not sure if we have a pole car, but I believe we can qualify in the top five. The most important thing is to have a good car for the race."


Dario Franchitti and teammate Paul Tracy were 19th and 20th today and neither Team Green drivers were at all happy with their cars. "We have a lot to do to get on the pace," Franchitti said. "We're struggling. We have no grip at all. I feel fine physically in the car. We've just got to get on with the work of sorting-out the car."


A pitlane accident in this morning's first session sent two crewman and a television camerman to hospital suffering from minor injuries. the incident occured when rookie Alexandre Tagliani lost control of his car when he braked for the speed-limit line as he entered the pitlane. Tagliani spun into Tony Kanaan's car which was parked in its pit stall. The right front suspension was torn from Tagliani's car and the right rear damaged on Kanaan's machine.


Neither driver was injured but one of Kanaan's crewman was knocked down as well as a TV camerman and an Arciero Racing Project crewman. The trio were treated for their injuries which amounted to bruises and contusions, and released later in the day from hospital.