Australian Will Power has given Team Australia and its home fans the best possible start to this weekend's Lexmark Indy 300 by qualifying on provisional pole position at Surfers Paradise today. source: Team Australia Power grabbed pole in opening qualifying for Round 13 of the Champ Car World Series with an outstanding lap around the demanding Gold Coast street circuit. The fastest time in today's session assures the Toowoomba-born driver a front row start in Sunday's race. Power was on top of the times sheets in the early stages of the session before the Newman-Haas pair of Sebastien Bourdais and Bruno Junqueira moved above the #5 Aussie Vineyards Lola. Power and his engineer Brandon Fry then made some changes to the Team Australia Lola and fitted the car with a new set of Bridgestone's red 'option' tyres. The local favourite then followed up his early form in the morning practice to set a scintillating pace in front of his cheering home fans. Power was on an even faster lap when the red flag was brought out as a result of AJ Allmendinger colliding with one of the unforgiving Gold Coast concrete walls, giving Power his first front row start in Champ Car and his first pole in a Champ Car qualifying session. This will be the first front row start for Team Australia in this year's championship. Power's team-mate Alex Tagliani also made a set-up change mid-session but it did not prove as successful and the Canadian finished eighth in the #15 Team Australia/Aussie Vineyards Lola. Tagliani and Power have both been on the pace from the work go today at the team's home event. The Aussie Vineyards Lolas have been fast from the word go. Tagliani is confident that he will be able to match his young team-mate's form in final qualifying tomorrow, while Power has stated that he will still be pushing hard for tomorrow in an attempt to follow up today's superb efforts.
Recent Articles
|
Racing Multimedia
Recommendations |