Spaniard steals pole away from home town favorite Will Power by 3 hundredths of a second source: champcar.ws Oriol Servia (#22 Pay By Touch Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) may have changed teams but he hasn't changed his ways. The Spaniard didn't waste any time getting readjusted to his PKV Racing team as he claimed the provisional pole in today's first round of qualifying, guaranteeing himself a front row starting position in Sunday's Lexmark Indy 300. Servia was making his return with the Indianapolis-based team for who he drove in 2006. Getting reacquainted with the team didn't seem to pose a problem for the veteran as he was quick right out of the box registering the second quickest time in the morning practice session. When it came time to qualify, Servia proved that the last lap is when it really counts as his lap of 1 minute 30.862 seconds was good enough to edge local favorite Will Power (#5 Aussie Vineyards Coworth/DP01/Bridgestone) in the dying moments of provisional qualifying. The veteran may have been the quickest in the end, but when qualifying got under way it didn't look like he would be the one atop the time sheets at the end of the day. Sebastien Bourdais (#1 McDonald's Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone), Power and Justin Wilson (#9 CDW Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) were exchanging the top spot until Bourdais made contact with the wall in Turn 1, for a third time in five years. Bourdais, who was second at that time behind Power, lost his fastest lap for causing a red flag and fell to seventh. The red flag caused by the Frenchman's incident was the first of two that disrupted the session. Many drivers were on their 'quick lap' when the final red flag flew for Alex Tagliani's (#8 PBD Equities Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) spin coming out of Turn 1. The stoppage sent everybody into the pits for final adjustments. The green flag flew again with about two minutes to go giving everyone enough time to complete one final lap. While a good number of the drivers improved their time, it was Servia that went the quickest, stealing the provisional pole position away from Power who had stopped the clock at 1 minute 30.895 seconds. The Australian was also pushing hard on his final lap but traffic cost him a few tenths which was just enough to keep him in second. Wilson finished third with Paul Tracy (#3 Indeck Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) fourth. It was an up and down day for the rookie field who, all but Simon Pagenaud (#15 Aussie Vineyards Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone), found themselves at the bottom part of the timing sheet in the morning practice session. However, Neel Jani (#21 Red Bull/Gulfstream Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) and Robert Doornbos (#14 Minardi Team USA Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) crept into the top half with the fifth and sixth times respectively in provisional qualifying. Bruno Junqueira (#19 Sonny's Bar-B-Q Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone) was seventh, Bourdais ended up eighth and Pagenaud ninth. Nelson Philippe (#34 Juniper Soul Cosworth/DP01/Bridgestone), who is making his return with Conquest Racing this weekend, rounded out the top-ten.
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