Gommendy takes provisional pole
Tristan Gommendy was unbeatable in first qualifying at Mont Tremblant circuit this afternoon, guaranteeing his PKV Racing entry a place on the front row
The Frenchman guided his car around the 2.621-mile circuit in 1:16.776, at an average speed of 122.898mph, to hold off a last-ditch attempt by Sebastien Bourdais.
The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing driver wound up 0.007 seconds short after making a mistake on his final lap.
"We put black [hard compound] tyres on at the beginning of the session, and I got a good lap, but the car was not very stable," said Gommendy.
"So my engineer asked me what I wanted, and I said 'more grip'. But the red [softer] tyres weren't any quicker and changed the balance of the car."
Bourdais was unhappy with Dan Clarke of Team Minardi USA, who was apparently dragging dirt on to the track up ahead of him after small off-track excursions. Bourdais remained on black tyres throughout the session.
Will Power was third for Team Australia, with Justin Wilson of RSPORTS, Robert Doornbos (Minardi USA), Neel Jani (PKV), and Power's teammate Simon Pagenaud filling the next four slots.
Surprisingly, given that this is one of Champ Car's longer tracks, the top seven were covered by just 0.17 seconds.
Paul Tracy and Oriol Servia were left languishing in 11th and 14th, leaving Conquest Racing's Jan Heylen to take 12th, despite this being his first visit to the track and despite having an off at the final hairpin in the 10 minutes of pre-qualifying.
Pacific Coast Motorsports' Ryan Dalziel and Alex Figge ended in 13th and 15th positions respectively, within 1.2 and 1.3 seconds of Gommendy's top lap.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Tristan Gommendy PKV 1:16.776 2. Sebastien Bourdais Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:16.783 + 0.007 3. Will Power Team Australia 1:16.841 + 0.065 4. Justin Wilson RSPORTS 1:16.843 + 0.067 5. Robert Doornbos Minardi Team USA 1:16.850 + 0.074 6. Neel Jani PKV 1:16.931 + 0.155 7. Simon Pagenaud Team Australia 1:16.944 + 0.168 8. Alex Tagliani RSPORTS 1:17.256 + 0.480 9. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:17.475 + 0.699 10. Dan Clarke Minardi Team USA 1:17.481 + 0.705 11. Paul Tracy Forsythe Championship 1:17.629 + 0.853 12. Jan Heylen Conquest 1:17.832 + 1.056 13. Ryan Dalziel Pacific Coast Motorsports 1:17.965 + 1.189 14. Oriol Servia Forsythe Championship 1:18.012 + 1.236 15. Alex Figge Pacific Coast Motorsports 1:18.067 + 1.291 16. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 1:18.127 + 1.351 17. Katherine Legge Dale Coyne 1:18.989 + 2.213
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