Schumacher

Michael Schumacher , who already has clinched his fourth Formula One championship, covered the 2.6-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway course in 1 minute, 11.708 seconds in qualifying on Saturday.

Ralf's quickest lap speed, 1:11.986, was good for third Saturday, behind his brother and Mika Hakkinen at 1:11.945.

"The final straight was not the reason," Ralf Schumacher said.

"The reason was earlier at Turn 4, when I braked a bit too late, locked a front wheel and couldn't make the turn."

The younger Schumacher has one career pole and three victories -- all this season -- and is fourth in the series points despite failing to finish six races. He has been no worse than seventh, however, in any race he has completed.

"But we didn't expect to be where we are," he said of his starting position in Sunday's race. "We struggled the whole weekend to find a decent balance and worked our way through it in qualifying. But it's going to be a difficult race for us."

The slowest qualifier was Alexander Yoong of Malaysia at 1:15.247. All 21 other drivers beat the former track record of 1:14.266 by Michael Schumacher.

"Certainly it was the tires," the defending champion said of the increased speeds. "We developed the cars as well, the horsepower, but the big factor was the tires."

Streak ends
Juan Pablo Montoya qualified fourth, ending a streak of pole-position starts at two in a row and three of the past four. Montoya, the 2000 Indianapolis 500 winner, won his first F1 race two weeks ago in Italy.

"It was a very difficult session," he said of Saturday's qualifying, in which his best lap was at 1:12.252, just over a half-second slower than Schumacher's pole-winning time.

"We couldn't come to grips with the car. On my third run, the quickest one, I had a lot of traffic, and then on the last run I made a mistake, so I couldn't improve on the time," Montoya said.

"I felt that I could do better."

Only a race
Although security was tightened for the U.S. Grand Prix, there was no real fear that the expected 200,000 fans might be an attractive target for terrorists, Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George said.

"This is only an auto race," George said. "The other (World Trade Center attack) was meant to go right at the heart and fabric of American economy, and I think this, while it's a large gathering and we have to take the appropriate steps, I'm not concerned about there being any kind of situation develop out here."

Among the measures were the placing of additional uniformed police and subjecting fans carrying coolers and large bags to searches.

"It's inappropriate to talk about all the measures," George said. "A lot of them are noticed and some of them will go unnoticed."

Two weeks ago, George postponed the season-ending Indy Racing League Chevy 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway to Oct. 6 because of the terrorist attacks. Now, he said, it's time to get back to racing.

"As far as I know, this is probably the first international sporting event, certainly to take place on American soil, since Sept. 11," he said. "So I think it is important to try and get back to carrying about our normal lives, to the extent our lives will ever be normal again."

Race visitors
Emerson Fittipaldi, a two-time Formula One champion and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, called the Speedway "a perfect place for racing."

"You have the best of the two worlds here," Fittipaldi said.

Others visiting the track included CART drivers Helio Castroneves, who won this year's Indianapolis 500, Gil de Ferran, Max Papis, Tony Kanaan and Michel Jourdain Jr.; IRL champion Sam Hornish Jr. and former Indy winner Eddie Cheever; car owners Roger Penske, Carl Haas and Sam Schmidt; and Andrew Craig, former head of CART and now affiliated with Formula One's Sauber team.

Castroneves and de Ferran, who finished second in the 500 in May, drive for Penske.

"Racing is what I love. But you also like to see a different type of race car, different people," Castroneves said of the popularity of Formula One among the CART and IRL drivers.

"It's a great layout ... but I still like the oval more than anything else," Castroneves said.

Milestone start
Jean Alesi, who qualified ninth, will make his 200th Formula One start Sunday. Only four other drivers have driven that many F1 races, topped by the record 256 by Riccardo Patrese.

Alesi's only victory was in the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix. The 37-year-old Frenchman began racing F1 in 1989.

"Obviously, to have a new team like this, it is not very easy to be competitive, especially when you see the difference in each car is very small," said Alesi, driving for the Jordan Honda team.

"You still need to be competitive. When you're in the top 10 like we are now, we need to be very happy."

Among other active drivers, Sunday's start will be the 160th for Mika Hakkinen, 159th for Michael Schumacher and 146th for Rubens Barrichello.