Qually cancelled after day one washout

CART revealed that it has cancelled Friday's qualifying session and will instead stage two practice sessions (from 0930 to 1130 and 1330 to 1430 local time) with the grid to be based on championship standings. In the event that the race cannot be run on Saturday because of rain, it will be run on Sunday as conditions allow.

The grid will feature Champ Car series leader Gil de Ferran on pole alongside Kenny Brack, with de Ferran's Penske Racing team mate Helio Castroneves in third.

"The rain is especially frustrating because it's our first time here in Germany," said reigning CART champion de Ferran. "We want to put on a show and demonstrate to the fans what Champ Car racing is all about. But unfortunately this is a part of oval racing and there is nothing you can do about it."

CART's decision to add practice time at the expense of qualifying was made mainly because the cars are running an essentially untested aerodynamic configuration. Alex Barron ran several wing options using a 2000-model Lola-Ford several weeks ago at the Eurospeedway oval, and those tests resulted in the scrapping of the high-drag Handford Device wing in favour of the tiny superspeedway rear wing used at Michigan, Fontana and Rio until the last couple of years.

"I think overall that giving us more practice time is the right thing to do," said Castroneves. "I asked the engineers what to expect and they said the tests with the Lola showed the loss of a lot of downforce. It should be pretty fast because there is so little drag.

"For me personally, I would have like to have had the chance to push the limit and go for the pole," Helio added. "But on the other hand, third is a good place to start because I know I have a good oval car. I had the pole at Japan and was very fast at Nazareth and Milwaukee."

"It's hard to know what to expect, really," said de Ferran of the wing package. "All of the testing and the simulations returned about the same amount of grip, but there is a lot less drag with this wing. I don't expect any large issues."