Qualifying: It's still Gil

The Brazilian, who is trying to earn his second straight CART championship, was more than half a second faster than Ganassi Racing rookie Bruno Junqueira in locking up his fourth Champ Car pole of the 2001 season.

De Ferran also earned a championship point for his effort, moving him to within 5 points of series leader Kenny Brack, who qualified a strong third on Saturday. Helio Castroneves was fourth fastest to complete a satisfying day for Team Penske.

Mauricio Gugelmin set the ball rolling by pacing the first group with a 60.502 second lap, but within six minutes, three drivers in the second group surpassed that mark, headed by Castroneves. But Helio was never able to achieve another clear lap, whereas de Ferran was able to bank two laps quick enough to win the pole, including a 59.421s stunner on his final lap.

"I have to say that the car has been really good since yesterday when we unloaded," de Ferran said. "We tried to improve the car here and there, and for the most part we had it handled. It was just a case of getting the lap together this afternoon, both in terms of getting the tyres at the best point and trying to avoid traffic, which was a major issue this morning.

"Thankfully, I was able to get a couple of free laps and put a good one in. So I'm very pleased about today, but today is finished. I'm thinking about tomorrow."

De Ferran finished third at Houston in 2000 behind the two Ganassi cars after also starting on the pole. With the championship coming down to the wire, he is determined to stay in front throughout the 100 laps on Sunday.

"To win will be very difficult," he noted. "Everything must come together on Sunday. The strategy must be just right, the pit stops must go well, you have to have a car that's behaving consistently well throughout the race, and finally, you can't make a mistake.

Junqueira's day got off to an ignominious start when he was crashed out by his team mate Memo Gidley on his out lap in morning practice. That put the Brazilian rookie a step behind, but he and the Ganassi engineering staff recovered by the afternoon.

"This morning started really strange for me," Junqueira said. "I just did Turn 4 and was on the back straight when suddenly my team mate hit the back of my car and I had a big crash into the wall in the middle of the straight. The car had a lot of damage and I had to go to the spare car, which wasn't that good at first."

Brack was also happy with his qualifying effort, having run eighth fastest in practice.

"I think we did the best we could have expected," said the Team Rahal driver. "You can't worry about what the others are doing. You just have to worry about yourself. I think that Team Rahal and Ford and everybody are trying to do our best. I have a great team behind me, and we're just going to stay focused and do the best job possible. That's all you can control, and what will be will be."

Brack moved up to third with about 10 seconds remaining and set out on another lap, but his tyres were past their best and he locked up and went down an escape road.

Kenny admitted that the Penske duo will provide formidable competition on Sunday. But he also said he won't back down.

"The Penskes are difficult to beat on a track like this, but we still have to do the race," he said. "For sure, it seems like they unload very quick on this type of track and it seems a bit harder for us to get our direction. You can get a little bit behind, maybe, but I think in a race situation we're as good as anybody. We'll have to wait and see what goes on here tomorrow, but I look forward to it. I think we'll be good."

Alex Tagliani improved nicely to take fifth on the grid, ahead of Dario Franchitti

"I'm fairly pleased," said Franchitti. "The car hasn't been that good all weekend. We knew we were in trouble yesterday and this morning wasn't much better. So we turned the car upside-down after the morning session and changed everything we could think of.

"I'm never really happy unless I'm on pole, but it could have been a lot worse here, for sure. So I have to hand it to the team."

Gugelmin's first group time held up for ninth, behind his PacWest team mate Scott Dixon and Cristiano da Matta, who along with his Newman-Haas teammate Christian Fittipaldi, was very disappointed after running well in the morning practice. Tony Kanaan and Michael Andretti improved on their final laps to move up to 10th and 12th respectively. Roberto Moreno was in between in 11th. At the far end of the grid, Paul Tracy was back in 21st, while Casey Mears played himself in well to grid 25th.