On the streets of Miami in Grand Prix Americas provisional
qualifying
source: Team Players
Miami, Florida - The road to a Champ Car World Series' drivers' title
isn't an easy one, and Team Player's driver Paul Tracy, the current leader
in the championship, hit some bumps in that road in the first Grand Prix
Americas qualifying session on Friday. After a brush against the wall that
shortened his morning practice run, Tracy was 14th in single-car
provisional qualifying on the 1.314-mile Miami street circuit.
Tracy's teammate Patrick Carpentier, whose front and rear tire rubbed the
wall on what had started out as his fastest qualifying lap, clocked the
11th fastest lap of the session, which was dominated by Brazilian Bruno
Junqueira (45.024 seconds, 91.951 mph), Tracy's main rival for the championship.
With the bonus point for the provisional pole, Junqueira assured himself
of a front-row start for Sunday's 135-lap race and moved within 17 points
of Tracy in the standings.
"We had a bad day," Tracy remarked. "The only consolation is that it came
in provisional qualifying and we've got Saturday's final session to put
things back in order."
Tracy's woes began on the eighth lap of the practice run when, in an
attempted pass of Oriol Servia, his car got sideways and carried on into
the barrier, forcing Tracy to return the car to the pits, where Team
Players conducted repairs to the damaged front wing and suspension prior to
the provisional qualifying. Tracy toured the narrow track in 47.401 seconds
on his second of three allotted qualifying laps, but he aborted his third lap.