Junqueira just wants a chance

 But in fact he sounded truly rueful when he added: "I think my strongest thing used to be to have good, clean, solid races. So for sure this year I think I have been unlucky four times in a row. Maybe I think Monterrey was a little bit my fault as well."
 
In Monterrey, the third round of the series, he was penalised with a drive-through penalty for blocking Paul Tracy, but elsewhere he has had dreadful luck since returning from his accident at Indianapolis last year.

At Houston, Junqueira started second, but eventually he ran out of fuel while on track, whereas at Milwaukee (which he started second) and Long Beach (started third) he was taken out in first-lap shunts in which he was completely blameless.
 
After taking a brilliant pole, his first for two seasons, Junqueira said he wants to capitalise on it.

"I hope I can get back to nice clean races, getting on the podium, a solid top three man and winning races again.
 
"You know, that's what I did throughout my career in Champ Cars, since I joined Newman/Haas as well. This year I have shown I have the qualifying speed, but I haven't had a chance to put a race together. I think I can do it, and I hope it's tomorrow."
 
Talking of what initially started as a desultory weekend for him, Junqueira paid tribute to his teammate Sebastien Bourdais and his crew. He said: "Yesterday it was very difficult, and we were way off the pace.

"But we got the help of Sebastien and his crew, set the set-up a lot more towards his, and the car was much better this morning.
 
"My first run was good but the car still had a little bit of understeer, we made some changes and my first flying lap of my second run I was down to a 57.9, I knew 57.7 was pole at the time, and then I just pushed really hard, took all the risks and the lap was great. I ran a 57.6, and I'm happy with that."