Qualifying: De Ferran leads Penske 1-2

Castroneves wound up second despite having to serve an 8-minute penalty after he spun and stalled at the Keyhole turn. He stole the top spot from de Ferran by clocking a lap of 1m05.817s with under three minutes remaining in the session, but de Ferran knocked in a 1m06.653s just a few seconds later.

Castroneves was on a flyer that he believed would have given him the pole. But he ran into lapped traffic in the form of Kenny Brack and Paul Tracy in the Esses, and when Tracy was perhaps less co-operative than he could have been, Helio had to abandon the lap. Meanwhile, de Ferran was improving his time yet again, clocking a 1m05.442s on his final lap, just 0.095s off the track record he shares with Dario Franchitti.

"I was really happy to get two clear laps in a row at the end, because the traffic was terrible on the first set of tyres," said de Ferran. "On the first set, it seemed like we caught someone coming out of the pits every time we started a lap. But on the second set, I got a clear run and got into a good rhythm. I was really pushing the envelope, and it was quite enjoyable."

De Ferran lies fifth in the CART championship standings, but he hasn't been to victory lane yet in 2001. Saturday's pole was his second of the season; after qualifying in the top spot at Toronto, his race was ruined by a botched pit strategy and he wound up out of the points in 14th place.

"We've been fast everywhere, but we need to start reaching the end of races a little more often," de Ferran said. "Certainly it would be nice to win a race. But I'm not one to count my birds when there are still a lot of them flying around out there.

"A lot of people talk about getting on a roll, but I don't believe in that kind of thing," he continued. "That's not how I operate. I try to maintain an even keel and stay as consistent as possible at a very high level. So I try not to let one result make me feel too high or too low. But certainly I fancy my chances here."

Castroneves said he is hoping to match his Mid-Ohio result from 2000, when he won the race over de Ferran after qualifying second. But at the same time, he clearly felt he should have been on the pole. After he encountered Tracy and Brack on his final flying lap, he backed off to the point where Tracy thought he was brake-tested. The duo then exchanged hand gestures for the remainder of the lap.

"I was obviously getting out of his way," remarked Tracy. "I'll have to talk to the Golden Boy. He's a clown. We slowed him down, he didn't get the pole, so he took his frustration out and brake-checked me." The Canadian went on to say that he deserved an apology from Castroneves.

"I'm not the one on probation," replied Helio. "He's on probation. So I guess he feels he needs an apology from me. We have the data that shows that I was really fast at that part of the track. For sure I was faster than he was. If he says he was out of the way, I didn't see it that way. It's his story and my story, and between them that's what happened. Let's talk about tomorrow instead."

Third went to Michigan winner Patrick Carpentier, who simply smiled when asked if he thought he could beat the Penskes tomorrow.

"I refuse to answer that," he said with a laugh.

Carpentier was more than happy to wind up in the second row after experiencing a series of engine and turbo boost problems throughout practice. The glitches continued into qualifying, as the Canadian's Ford-Cosworth engine intermittently cut out during his first run. But the Forsythe team got the problem fixed and Carpentier put in a series of quick laps. Adding to the team's joy, Alex Tagliani secured the sixth spot.

"It seems like at Michigan we broke through a wall that had been there for years," Carpentier said. "Actually, the key was when Alex finished on the podium in Toronto. Since then, everyone has been a little happier and we all know that we are capable of running that well every weekend.

"It was a lot of fun this afternoon. Ford always surprises me. I had a really good engine. We missed 45 minutes of practice this morning and switched cars a couple of times. We made a lot of changes to the car for qualifying and they clearly worked, because both cars are up front. The team kept bringing me up to date on who was where and who was beating who and it was really enjoyable."

Jimmy Vasser has had his most consistently competitive weekend of the season, and he slotted his Patrick Reynard-Toyota into fourth place.

"The car was really good in qualifying," reported the American. "It was very competitive, so a couple of tenths was really important. I thought I had a better lap, but somehow I lost time in the last corner. But we need to have a good race to get our season back on track."

Franchitti spun at the Carousel late in the session, but he got back out in time to improve from seventh to fifth on his final lap.

"The car was pretty loose," he said. "I was lucky when I spun because I only just tapped the tyres. After that it didn't feel any different, but it was the best we could do today."

Behind Tagliani in sixth came Tony Kanaan, Tracy, Christian Fittipaldi, and Bruno Junqueira, who set the pace in the first qualifying group. The early runners had a slight disadvantage because they ran in bright sunshine. In the 15-minute break between the qualifying groups, the sky clouded up and cooled the track temperature to the point where de Ferran was six tenths faster than his morning time. Junqueira was only able to improve by a tenth.

Series leader Kenny Brack wound up back in 13th place and will have his work cut out on a track where it is traditionally very difficult to pass.

"We failed on our set-up in qualifying," admitted the Swede. "I tried a lot of different things this weekend and I spun three times. But it wasn't there in practice and qualifying."

For full qualifying results, click here.