Qualifying 2: Unstoppable da Matta

The 28-year-old Brazilian may be the most dominant driver in any form of motorsport right now after taking his fourth consecutive CART pole on road circuits. He'll be aiming for a record fifth straight win in Sunday's 115-lap event.

Da Matta's pursuers found more speed in Saturday's final qualifying session, but so did he. Cristiano's lap of 57.040 seconds maintained his magic margin of 0.4s over Patrick Carpentier (57.470s) and Dario Franchitti (57.482s), who did a nice job to recover from a morning practice accident.

Carpentier and his Player's/Forsythe team-mate Alex Tagliani were the first drivers to threaten da Matta's Friday time of 57.641 seconds. Then with 13 minutes remaining in the 60-minute session, Franchitti turned his best lap, jumping to the top of the charts.

It lasted less than two minutes, because da Matta came back with a 57.170s and finally the 57.040s. His only scare during the session came when he was exiting the pits for his first run only to find Mario Dominguez' car spinning toward him.

"That was a big moment for sure," da Matta said. "I had some laps in traffic but I had some clear laps and that was all I needed. I got the most out of the car ? it was awesome, like it has been all year."

Carpentier improved right at the end to jump up to second. The next best Reynard was Tora Takagi in 10th place.

"He was nowhere this morning, so knowing this guy, it must have been a hell of a lap," remarked da Matta.

Carpentier agreed. "We improved the traction control coming out of Corner One and the car was very comfortable," he said. "We'll find out tomorrow if we can hold it for 115 laps."

Franchitti believed he had the car to challenge da Matta for the pole, but a lack of track time blunted the Scot's charge. A Friday engine fire and Saturday's Turn Eight accident cost Dario more than an hour of practice time.

"The car unloaded fast but I was a little too conservative in a couple of corners for qualifying," Franchitti said. "We might have been able to give Cristiano more of a fight, but it's my fault for not getting everything out of it that I could. We fully intend to close the gap and I think we had the car to do it today, but I didn't do my job properly."

Christian Fittipaldi made a late improvement to qualify fourth, while Michael Andretti posted his best qualifying effort of the season to take fifth on the grid alongside Tony Kanaan.

The Ganassi racing challenge faded on Saturday as Bruno Junqueira was the team's top runner in eighth place, one spot ahead of Kenny Brack and four places better than Scott Dixon. And Fernandez Racing endured a miserable day, with Adrian Fernandez and Shinji Nakano filling the back row.

"Unfortunately all teams face this situation from time to time," lamented team manager Tom Anderson. "This is a true test for us."

Cristiano da Matta Newman-Haas Lola-Toyota 57.040s
Patrick Carpentier Player's Reynard-Ford 57.470s
Dario Franchitti Team Green Lola-Honda 57.482s
Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Lola-Toyota 57.499s
Michael Andretti Team Motorola Lola-Honda 57.645s
Tony Kanaan Mo Nunn Racing 57.713s
Jimmy Vasser Team Rahal Lola-Ford 57.731s
Bruno Junqueira Ganassi Lola-Toyota 57.751s
Kenny Brack Ganassi Lola-Toyota 57.797s
Tora Takagi Walker Racing Lola-Toyota 57.798s
Paul Tracy Team Green Lola-Honda 57.827s
Scott Dixon Ganassi Lola-Toyota 57.913s
Mario Dominguez Herdez Lola-Ford 58.050s
Alex Tagliani Player's Reynard-Honda 58.058
Townsend Bell Patrick Racing Reynard-Toyota 58.304s
Michel Jourdain Jr Team Rahal Lola-Ford 58.326s
Adrian Fernandez Fernandez Lola-Honda 58.546s
Shinji Nakano Alpine-Mitsubishi Lola-Honda 58.559s