Qualifying 2: Da Matta still on top
Paul Tracy tried to steal the show, but Cristiano da Matta was able to respond to retain pole position for Sunday's Toronto Champ Car round. It was da Matta's third consecutive CART road racing pole and extended his championship lead to 27 points over Bruno Junqueira.
Four drivers beat da Matta's Friday pole time of 58.487 seconds, but the Newman-Haas ace had enough in hand for a series of fast laps, culminating in a 58.135sec effort with a minute left in the session.
Christian Fittipaldi was the first man to beat his Newman-Haas Racing team-mate's Friday time, shaving 0.01 of a second off it with a 58.477 some 43 minutes into the hour. But da Matta was also on track and he immediately responded with a 58.189sec.
That time held up for the Brazilian until Tracy cracked off a 58.172sec with 2 minutes 30 seconds to go. Trac''s joy was short-lived, however, because 30 seconds later, da Matta reeled off a 58.151sec and the pole-winning 58.135sec lap in succession.
"I didn't know until after the session that Paul was close and that we exchanged P1," da Matta remarked. "It was a smooth session with no traffic. It was perfect. I couldn't ask for anything more than that."
Tracy was delighted with a front row starting spot for his home race. "That was better than we could have expected," he said. "I would have been happy with a top five. We've had such limited time with the Lola and I think Team Green has done an exceptional job to be where we're at."
Junqueira jumped from ninth to third on his final lap after sitting out most of the session because his Toyota engine wouldn't run cleanly. After the Ganassi team changed most of the electrical black boxes, Bruno finally got out for the final seven minutes and came through under pressure.
Junqueira's team-mate Kenny Brack retained fourth on the grid, while Fittipaldi and Dario Franchitti filled out the third row.
Michael Andretti qualified last on the grid for the second time this season. The American's primary Lola-Honda stopped on track during his first flying lap and he could only manage a 59.981sec effort in his spare.
Cristiano da Matta Lola-Toyota 58.135s 108.678mph
Paul Tracy Lola-Honda 58.172s 108.609mph
Bruno Junqueira Lola-Toyota 58.256s 108.452mph
Kenny Brack Lola-Toyota 58.334s 108.307mph
Christian Fittipaldi Lola-Toyota 58.477s 108.042mph
Dario Franchitti Lola-Honda 58.488s 108.022mph
Shinji Nakano Lola-Honda 58.554s 107.900mph
Jimmy Vasser Lola-Ford 58.577s 107.858mph
Scott Dixon Lola-Toyota 58.677s 107.674mph
Tony Kanaan Lola-Honda 58.706s 107.621mph
Alex Tagliani Reynard-Honda 58.864s 107.332mph
Tora Takagi Lola-Toyota 58.930s 107.212mph
Adrian Fernandez Lola-Honda 59.051s 106.992mph
Patrick Carpentier Reynard-Ford 59.108s 106.889mph
Michel Jourdain Jr Lola-Ford 59.146s 106.820mph
Townsend Bell Reynard-Toyota 59.293s 106.556mph
Mario Dominguez Lola-Ford 59.673s 105.877mph
Michael Andretti Lola-Honda 59.760s 105.723mph
Share Or Save This Story
WRC Canary Islands: Solberg closes gap to leader Ogier as rain hits
How Antonelli aims to keep his momentum despite the F1 April break
Former Red Bull F1 boss Horner sparks intrigue with MotoGP appearance at Jerez
MotoGP Spanish GP: Marquez beats Zarco to pole at wet Jerez
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments