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Will Power
Champ Car
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Team Australia's Will Power, a winner two weeks ago in
Toronto, broke the track record at JagFlo Raceway in Edmonton Saturday to
win the pole position for Sunday's Rexall Grand Prix of Edmonton Champ Car
race.
Sebastien Bourdais will line up alongside on
the front row. Defending race winner Justin Wilson and Graham Rahal
occupy the second row with Neel Jani and Bruno Junqueira 5th and 6th.
Power's lap of 58.403s (121.617 mph) was 2/10ths faster than
Sebastien Bourdais turned in winning the provisional pole on Friday.
Bourdais could only manage 4th fastest time today.
Final qualifying was a fiercely competitive affair. In
the end Justin Wilson was 2nd fastest in the session, pipped to pole by just
seven thousandths of a second by Team Australia's Will Power. Although
Sebastien Bourdais (Newman/Haas/Lanigan) was 4th fastest, the Frenchman
starts the race from 2nd by virtue of his provisional pole from Friday.
Justin will line up in 3rd, sharing row 2 with Bourdais' teammate Graham
Rahal.
All of the leading drivers ran the softer red Bridgestone tire compound in
both qualifying stints. Justin posted his fastest lap of the session
(58.410s, 121.602 mph) on the 5th lap of his first stint - the first driver
to dip below 2006's track record - pitting in P1 by a clear margin of three
tenths of a second from Power. After a red flag to remove Alex Figge's PCM
machine from Turn 4, Justin went back out for his second stint, but being
late in the session traffic was more of a problem. Justin set two laps in
the 58.5 bracket, and was on course for a time in the low 58's before
catching traffic, but in the end was unable to better his earlier time.
Power found enough space to post a quick time of 58.403s (121.617 mph) and
take pole.
"The car was feeling good", said Justin. "I was on a quicker lap and I
caught Will in the last corner and lost a couple of 10ths. That lap was
going to be quicker, but that's how it goes sometimes. Thanks to everyone at
the #9 CDW team - they've worked hard this weekend to give me a quick car.
I'm very pleased with the way things are going and I'm looking forward to
the race."
Team Australia rookie Simon Pagenaud (#15 Aussie Vineyards
Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) who along with his teammate Power lead the Champ
Car Canadian Triple Crown standings will start eighth after a lap at 58.868
seconds (120.656 mph). Ryan Dalziel (#28 Pacific Coast Motorsports
Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) earned the best start of his Champ Car career and
will line up eighth.
Alex Tagliani (Tide@Wal-Mart Victory Lap Charity Program
Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) will start ninth despite not being able to better
his qualifying time from Friday. He will start alongside Dan Clarke (#4
Minardi Team USA Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) who earned his fourth top-10
start of the year.
Quotes
Will Power #5 Aussie Vineyards
Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified 1st) – “I think I did a similar thing
to what Sebastien did this morning, except he spun and I corrected it, and
jumped the curb, took off the front wing, did a bit of damage. But I did a
time good enough earlier on in the run. So, you know, it was good. We had
the speed there all weekend. I just haven't been putting laps together. We
haven't had a clear run. That was pretty much my first clear lap. And, yeah,
we did what we needed to do.”
Sebastien Bourdais #1 McDonalds Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified 2nd) –
“I don't particularly think that our car was handling better on the
Bridgestone red tires. Obviously we had done a fairly good lap on the
blacks. I think it was very close to the pole actually. So I was fairly
happy with that. But, you know, it's not a big deal. I think there's a
little balance difference. But the two sets are pretty close and work well
here. Just a good day for us. I mean, we had a really good car in the 15
minutes, and it was going really well in the qualifying session. And just
like Justin said, P.T. was just playing a little bit again in the last two
laps and - well, pretty much the whole run, but the last two laps when it
really mattered. And he backed up Bruno, and Bruno did me, and that was
that. It was the last corner, so that ruined the last two laps and we had
the (indiscernible) going on. A little frustrating obviously because the
team did a fantastic job and the car was great. But, you know, it's going to
be a long day tomorrow and we'll see what happens.”
Justin Wilson #9 CDW Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified 3rd) – “the car
was feeling good. Just thank everyone at the #9 CDW car that's worked hard
this weekend to make it quick. So very pleased with how it went. I think,
like everyone in the field, was on a quicker lap and I caught Will in the
last corner and lost a couple of 10ths. That lap was going to be quicker,
but that's how it goes sometimes.”
Graham Rahal #2 Medi | Zone Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified 4th) - “It
was a good day for the whole Medi | Zone team. The whole weekend has been
solid. We’ve been third in every single session so far so. We’re just happy
to be less than a tenth of a second off pole. At the end of the day we know
we had a lap that was quick enough to be on pole. I know drivers say this
all the time we really did have a lap that was one-tenth and a half up right
at the end. I just got into Turn 11 a little too hot and locked up the right
front and went wide and lost the time. For sure we were really quick and
definitely had a pole car but just didn’t put it together. We hope that
tomorrow will be a good event for the Medi | Zone team. The last airport
circuit track in Cleveland was successful for us. We had a good run although
the results don’t show it. This weekend has been solid so maybe the airport
circuits have been good to us.”
Bruno Junqueira #19 Sonny’s Bar-B-Q Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified
6th) – "I was happy with the car ran today. I was able to post a faster time
than yesterday. I'm pleased to be starting in sixth position and think that
I can make a run to the front early into the race. There is a good chance
that i can have a podium finish tomorrow if all goes right. My team has done
an outstanding job this weekend giving me a fast car. I'm looking forward to
the race tomorrow."
Simon Pagenaud #15 Aussie Vineyards Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified
7th) – “It has been a rough day. We’ve had a good Aussie Vineyards car all
day long and I guess qualifying didn’t go the way that we had wanted. We had
a good car in the first stint with red tires. I did a decent lap, a 58.8,
which was a P4, and when we went back out on track the red tires worked
really well on one lap and then I got blocked in the last lap by Mr.
Doornbos. I guess he still doesn’t get the rules of Champ Car. I don’t know
what to say, it’s just very disappointing because obviously we had a better
car than seventh, because the car was much quicker than that. The whole crew
has done a great job and we have a great race car for tomorrow. I expect
that we will do good in the race and we can get back up there.”
Ryan Dalziel #28 PCM Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified 8th) – “I am
really happy. It’s been a good weekend and I am really proud of my team. I
am getting used to the track. This is by far the most difficult and
intimidating track I’ve been to. With the limited amount of practice time
and of course no test time being it is an active airport, it is tough to
learn as quick as we need to but that is our job. At the same time, once you
get it, it is a blast and now probably one of my favorites!”
Alex Tagliani #8 RSPORTS Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified 9th) – “Today
did not go as well as we were expecting or hoping for. I am not happy, we
are going slower then we were yesterday. I do not know what exactly is going
on, but we have a lot of work to do so that we hopefully can have a decent
race tomorrow in the #8 Tide@Wal-Mart Victory Lap Charity Program car.”
“Speedy” Dan Clarke #4 Team Minardi USA Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified
10th) – “We recovered well from yesterday and knew we could do well in
today’s qualification. We were playing catch-up a bit since we missed an
entire session yesterday but I think we are good for the race. We had a few
wrinkles in the set-up as a result of this, but we are satisfied to be in
the top ten, even if it would have been nice to be a bit closer to the
front. All the guys did a great job bringing the car back together and I’m
grateful to them for that. There were so many red flags out there today, and
I think anything could happen in the race, but at least we’re starting in
the top ten.”
Robert Doornbos #14 Team Minardi USA Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified
11th) – “This was obviously a disappointing qualifying session for us. It
started out with the overall feeling of the car improved as a result of
changes we made during the morning practice session, but then on my second
run this afternoon, on fresh reds, I encountered a shifting problem. This
was later traced to the car’s power supply, but it meant I had to pit before
completing the run. It’s not great to be starting from 11th on the grid, but
it’s definitely possible to get a podium from there, and that’s what we’ll
be aiming for tomorrow.”
Jan Heylen #34 Champ Car Grand Prix of Belgium Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone
(Qualified 12th) – “We are not where we were hoping to be today. The entire
team tried hard so now we’ll try to make it better for tomorrow and work
toward completing our race. It was a very eventful qualifying and I feel
that we could have gone faster but everyone faced the challenges of the stop
and go pace. Tomorrow is going to be a tough race physically so I just have
to focus on preparing myself for the event and make the best of my
qualifying. I know we will have a good result if we can finish the race so
we’ll work on getting through the first few laps.”
Oriol Servia #7 INDECK Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified 13th) – “It’s
been a tough weekend for us, we just can’t seem to get the car to handle.
We’ve made a lot of changes but we haven’t been able to find the right
balance. It’s very frustrating, everybody in the Team is working extremely
hard and hopefully we can find some speed for the race tomorrow. We are
starting near the back so we might have to look at some alternative
strategies, the last few races have been pretty crazy so you never know
what’s going to happen.”
Paul Tracy #3 INDECK Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified 14th) – “It’s
extremely frustrating, we just can’t get the car right, we have no grip and
we have no balance. We thought we had made some improvements in practice but
then during qualifying I went out and the car was extremely loose, I spun on
my first lap and had a pretty hard shunt. It knocked the wind out of me for
a few seconds, I really just had no confidence on the car after that. My
crew fixed the car and after the red flag we tried to improve our time but
the car was just all over the place and we couldn’t go any quicker. We
really just have to put everything behind and us and go out and pick up a
bunch of positions tomorrow.”
Katherine Legge #11 Dale Coyne Racing Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified
15th) – "My team did an outstanding job today getting the car ready for
second round qualifying. I honestly didn't think I was going to be able to
qualify today after I hit the wall in morning practice. The damage was quite
extensive. Even though I was only able to get out for five laps of
qualifying today, it was a moral victory for the Dale Coyne Racing team. The
crew gets all the credit for there awesome work. I think that I should be
competitive in the race tomorrow and should be able to move up through the
field, especially since I'm right behind Paul Tracy."
Alex Figge #29 PCM Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone (Qualified 16th) -”We’re having
a bit of a tough go of it. This is not an easy place, but at the same time I
think we have made progress, despite my off. It is going to be tough
tomorrow, I am looking for an incident free race.”
Starting Lineup
|
Pos |
Driver |
# |
Team |
Lap Time |
Mph |
Behind |
|
1 |
W. Power |
5 |
Team Australia |
58.403 |
121.617 |
|
|
2 |
S. Bourdais |
1 |
Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing |
58.596 |
121.216 |
0.193 |
|
3 |
J. Wilson |
9 |
RSPORTS |
58.410 |
121.602 |
0.007 |
|
4 |
G. Rahal |
2 |
Newman/ Haas/ Lanigan Racing |
58.485 |
121.447 |
0.082 |
|
5 |
N. Jani |
21 |
PKV Racing |
58.762 |
120.874 |
0.359 |
|
6 |
B. Junqueira |
19 |
Dale Coyne Racing |
58.846 |
120.701 |
0.443 |
|
7 |
S. Pagenaud |
15 |
Team Australia |
58.868 |
120.656 |
0.465 |
|
8 |
R. Dalziel |
28 |
Pacific Coast Motorsports |
59.256 |
119.866 |
0.853 |
|
9 |
A. Tagliani |
8 |
RSPORTS |
59.483 |
119.409 |
1.080 |
|
10 |
D. Clarke |
4 |
Minardi Team USA |
59.503 |
119.369 |
1.100 |
|
11 |
R. Doornbos |
14 |
Minardi Team USA |
59.553 |
119.269 |
1.150 |
|
12 |
J. Heylen |
34 |
Conquest Racing |
59.561 |
119.253 |
1.158 |
|
13 |
O. Servia |
7 |
Forsythe Championship Racing |
59.582 |
119.210 |
1.179 |
|
14 |
P. Tracy |
3 |
Forsythe Championship Racing |
1:00.107 |
118.169 |
1.704 |
|
15 |
K. Legge |
11 |
Dale Coyne Racing |
1:00.222 |
117.944 |
1.819 |
|
16 |
T. Gommendy |
|
PKV Racing |
|
|
|
|
17 |
A. Figge |
29 |
Pacific Coast Motorsports |
1:00.937 |
116.560 |
2.534 |
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