Qualifying 1: Provisional pole for Tracy

Tracy laid down a 1m17.220s (98.089mph) lap on his third tour of the dusty 2.104-mile temporary circuit 14 minutes into the 40-minute session, and while he wasn't able to beat it, no one else could either. Oriol Servia and Tracy's team-mate Patrick Carpentier came closest, both recording laps in the 1m17.3s bracket right at the end of qualifying. The Newman/Haas duo of Bruno Junqueira and Sebastien Bourdais were fourth and sixth, splitting local hero Michel Jourdain Jnr.

"The track was better, but the traffic was unbelievable," remarked Tracy, who is in search of his 14th career Champ Car pole to go along with his 20 race wins. "Every time I had a good lap going I got blocked or had to abort the lap because someone went off in front of me."

The session was only interrupted by a single red flag, caused when Champ Car debutant Alex Yoong spun and stalled at Turn 5 with twelve minutes to go. After a brief delay, the action resumed with Tracy leading Junqueira, Alex Tagliani and Jourdain. The order remained the same until the final minute, when Servia and Carpentier made big gains - though Servia said Carpentier prevented him from going even faster.

"It was a nightmare," Servia said. "Every time I had a lap, Patrick would slow down and I couldn't finish the lap."

Countered Carpentier: "Things didn't go too well early, but I finally got it together for a lap at the end. Before that, I was all over the place. Anywhere there was grass, I was on it."

Newman/Haas had a frustrating day. "I think I could have fought Paul for the pole, and it's disappointing to be fourth because I thought we had a good car," said Junqueira. "Then we had an oil leak and I wasn't able to make a second run."

Bourdais indulged in a quick spin at Turn 1 but continues to impress in his second CART race meeting. "The car didn't feel right - maybe something was wrong," said the Frenchman. "The track was slippery, but the car is still reacting differently than it did in testing and at St. Petersburg."

Britain's Darren Manning set the early pace, but his 1m17.989s lap put him 10th on the overnight grid.