Champ Car: Qualifying times (1) - Las Vegas.

[Rory Phoulorie]

Complete Friday qualifying results for Sunday's Las Vegas Grand Prix.

1. Paul Tracy CAN Forsythe Racing Panoz -Ford 1min 19.784secs
2. Simon Pagenaud* FRA Team Australia Panoz -Ford 1min 19.998secs
3. Sebastien Bourdais FRA Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing Panoz-Ford 1min 20.197secs
4. Justin Wilson GBR RSPORTS Panoz-Ford 1min 20.310secs
5. Alex Tagliani CAN RSPORTS Panoz -Ford 1min 20.437secs
6. Robert Doornbos* NED Minardi Team USA Panoz -Ford 1min 20.991secs
7. Will Power AUS Team Australia Panoz-Ford 1min 21.007secs
8. Tristan Gommendy* FRA PKV Racing Panoz -Ford 1min 21.565secs
9. Neel Jani* SUI PKV Racing Panoz -Ford 1min 21.618secs
10. Dan Clarke GBR Minardi Team USA Panoz-Ford 1min 22.123secs
11. Ryan Dalziel* GBR Pacific Coast Motorsport Panoz -Ford 1min 22.202secs
12. Mario Dominguez MEX Forsythe Racing Panoz -Ford 1min 22.384secs
13. Katherine Legge GBR Dale Coyne Racing Panoz -Ford 1min 22.420secs
14. Alex Figge* USA Pacific Coast Motorsport Panoz -Ford 1min 22.788secs
15. Graham Rahal* USA Newman-Haas-Lanigan Racing Panoz-Ford 1min 23.307secs
16. Matt Halliday* NZL Conquest Racing Panoz -Ford 13mins 20.444secs
17. Bruno Junqueira BRZ Dale Coyne Racing Panoz -Ford No time

http://www.crash.net/news_view~cid~3~id~145848.htm

[Plex]

Nice..

[Rory Phoulorie]

Tracy opens season with provisional pole.

Paul Tracy kicked off Champ Car's new era of racing in Las Vegas with the fastest time in provisional qualifying, the familiar face beating a host of high-profile rookies to the bonus point and a guaranteed spot on the front row of the grid.

With the new street circuit having been given its initiation with a pair of practice sessions that revealed Team Australia to be the surprise early team to beat, Tracy rose to the top when it mattered to haul his Forsythe Racing Panoz to the fastest time of the session and with it claim the first point of the season and the first point for the highly anticipated new chassis.

Having emerged with the fastest time in practice, Simon Pagenaud proved his front running pace was far from false hen he just missed out on a dream debut in second place. Nonetheless, having proved one of the drivers to beat for much of the day, the reigning Atlantic is likely to be fancying his chances of a shock pole position on his debut.

He even managed to out pace fellow Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais, who had gotten the season rolling with the best time in the first practice session, only to never really challenge for provisional pole position in qualifying.

He in turn led fellow Champ Car �veterans' Justin Wilson and Alex Tagliani as they embark on their first weekend racing under the merged RSPORTS banner.

Although overshadowed by Pagenaud, Robert Doornbos was another rookie to make an impression with Minardi Team USA, just ahead of Will Power, the Australian also having to let his team-mate bask in the early limelight.

Tristan Gommendy did a good job to out pace PKV Racing team-mate Neel Jani despite recording significantly less miles in testing, while Dan Clarke did a sterling job for tenth in a car he is yet to drive before today.

Ryan Dalziel was an encouraging eleventh best in the new PCM car, ahead of Forsythe's returnee Mario Dominguez and Dale Coyne Racing's newcomer Katherine Legge. Alex Figge and Graham Rahal were 14th and 15th quickest, ahead of Matt Halliday and Bruno Junquiera, who were both unable to set a realistic time following problems, the latter when he was hit by Gommendy on his out-lap.


http://www.crash.net/news_view~cid~3~id~145849.htm

[Rory Phoulorie]

Never liked Paul Tracy and I still don't like Paul Tracy. He has talent, but he has more of an attitude problem than driving talent.