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Saturday, September 1
Tagliani, Carpentier share front row
Associated Press
| |  | | | Tagliani |
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Canadian teammates Alex
Tagliani and Patrick Carpentier swept the front row for the
Vancouver Molson Indy with an aggressive wall-banging show Saturday
on the narrow street circuit.
"It's a blue and white front row," Tagliani said, referring to
the Team Player's colors. "Our luck has turned and the team is
really strong at the moment."
It wasn't easy, though, with the times of the top 15 qualifiers
for Sunday's race separated by less than one second.
"It's really competitive and you have to be very aggressive,"
said Tagliani after earning his second career pole and first since
the spring of 2000 in Brazil. "I was running too deep, not deep
enough, running over curbs. I almost crashed once, and I scraped
the wall, too.
"It's so competitive, it's just hundredths of a second for the
top eight spots," he added.
Tagliani got around the 1.781-mile, 12-turn circuit at the edge
of downtown Vancouver in 1 minute, 0.872 seconds -- a speed of
105.329 mph. His fellow Quebec native, Carpentier, was just 0.052
seconds and 0.090 mph slower at 1:00.924 and 105.239.
"This guy has been pretty fast all weekend," Carpentier said,
nodding toward his teammate. "I knew I had to push the car very
hard. I had no choice. I think I hit the wall three or four times
in qualifying and I nearly crashed on every lap."
Being up front at the start won't change that aggressive style
much on Sunday, according to Tagliani.
"We have no choice," he said. "With one second separating 15
cars, you lift twice on one lap and you go from first to 15th. I
don't want to be 15th."
Gil de Ferran, the defending CART FedEx Series champion, and
Marlboro Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves, the current series
leader, were close behind the Canadians, sandwiching current
runner-up Kenny Brack.
"That was a very frustrating session," de Ferran said. "I had
maybe three laps going that were better than my fast one, but I
kept making mistakes on the last three turns. That's what
qualifying is about though. The lap doesn't end after turn nine."
While the Penske cars have been fast all year, de Ferran paid a
compliment to the front row drivers, whose team has piled up the
most points in the series over the last five races after overcoming
a streak of bad fortune at the start of the season.
"It certainly hasn't escaped my attention that they have been
picking it up for quite a while now," he said. "We would
certainly be mistaken if we did not take them as serious contenders
at every event now."
Castroneves was equally frustrated.
"I couldn't get a clear lap," he said. "We were able to
improve the car but we couldn't go for it at the end due to the
last red flag. We're in a pretty good starting position, though.
It's a narrow circuit, so we need to be careful and make sure we're
in the points at the end."
Brack, who lost the points lead to Castroneves two weeks ago at
Road America, also thought he could have gone faster if the session
had not been cut short.
"But, overall, I'm pleased," he said. "It's very important to
start up front at a place like this. Passing is so difficult that
you need to qualify well."
Paul Tracy, another Canadian and the defending race winner,
improved from 19th in practice on Friday to eighth in qualifying,
but also ended the session two minutes early when he nosed his car
into a tire wall. Earlier in the day, he hit Michael Andretti from
behind during practice.
"We've got a good race car and a lot of things can happen in
this race.," Tracy said. "I know we can do a good race from
eighth."
Castroneves leads Brack by just five points and de Ferran by 11
with seven races remaining. It was important for all three that
they be near the front on a narrow, winding course that puts a
premium on passing.
"This type of race track is very narrow and it's easy to get in
each other's way," de Ferran said. "None of us can afford to make
a big mistake because it's getting to the time of year when there
aren't as many points left."
Tagliani agreed, saying, "We just want to have the points. We
should take care of each other and not get too aggressive at the
start. On this kind of track, you've got to expect there will be
yellows and I think the race will be played out in the last 20 laps
and probably in the last (pit) stop, too."
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