Qualifying: Gil wins it, then bins it

Qualifying was once again a Penske benefit, with Helio Castroneves joining his team mate on the front row. Helio had one last chance to beat de Ferran after the pair swapped BTD honours throughout qualifying, but Gil's spin brought out the red and chequered flags simultaneously to end the session with just under a minute remaining.

De Ferran's lap of 1m08.596 seconds wasn't close to Castroneves' track record of 1m07.722 from a year ago. But it was enough to secure pole by 0.183s. Scott Dixon was third quickest, the only other driver to break the 1m09-second barrier.

"That was a very difficult qualifying session and it wasn't the way I wanted to end it, for sure," de Ferran remarked. "But the car is not too damaged. I knew Helio would be very fast, but I was happy with my car this morning. My biggest problem was traffic. I could not get a clear lap. I almost stopped on the track at one point, just to get a gap.

"Finally, I got a clear lap," he continued. "I started the lap well, then had a couple of twitches here and there, but it was good enough for the pole. I started another lap, but at Turn 3 I just lost the back end and that was it."

Laguna Seca specialist Bryan Herta set the ball rolling in the first group with a 1m09.392s effort that wound up fifth overall. But the California native was sent to the back of the grid after his Reynard-Ford failed technical inspection.

As usual, the second group qualifiers were quickly running under that pace.


Castroneves seized the pole on his first run and bettered his time on his second. But de Ferran's spin prevented him from putting in a final flyer.

"I would have been faster for sure," Helio said. "But that's the system. They threw the red flag, even though there was time remaining. But sometimes you're the windshield and sometimes you're the bug.

"I don't want to say second sucks, but I guess I just did."

Dixon qualified a CART career-best third in his quest to wrap up series rookie honours.

"We went back to what we knew from yesterday (Friday), and it worked, because balance is everything here," Dixon said. "We could have improved a little bit, but to match or beat the Penskes would have been difficult.

"I think the Toyota will be good on fuel mileage," he added. "Hopefully we can open our windows a little wider and catch the dream yellow."

Roberto Moreno qualified fourth, heading Paul Tracy, who improved on his final lap. The other Team Green drivers fared less well, with Michael Andretti 16th and title longshot Dario Franchitti only 23rd.

The Lolas struggled, with Cristiano da Matta in eighth as their best effort. Championship contender Kenny Brack ran a new front wing package on his Team Rahal Lola-Ford, but wound up 15th.

For full qualifying results, click here.