Wilson grabs San Jose pole

 The RSPORTS driver was following Will Power of Team Australia when the car ahead of Power kept backing into them "for no reason that I could see," remarked Wilson. "It completely screwed Will's session, and I was being backed into Katherine [Legge]. So it was a real mess.
 
"However, we were being slowed up so much that I saved enough fuel to do one more lap, so when the others pitted, suddenly I could go for it, and fortunately it was good enough for pole."
 
Dan Clarke was the surprise of the session, putting his Minardi Team USA car second fastest, which will earn him third on the grid.

The Briton, who has not enjoyed the results he expected of himself this year, said: "Last year it was Edmonton where my season turned around, and this year hopefully this is the start of something better. Since yesterday we have cleaned up our act, made the car a bit quicker and this is the result."
 
In a tremendously tight field, Oriol Servia finished precisely 0.154 seconds ahead of his Forsythe Championship Racing teammate Paul Tracy - yet the pair will start in fourth and 11th respectively, while PKV Racing teammates Neel Jani and Tristan Gommendy reversed their disappointing Friday form too, with fifth and eighth respectively.
 
It was an anti-climactic session for Graham Rahal, who this morning and in the 15-minute pre-qualifying looked a strong bet for pole position. However, the American could not quite nail a lap on his final run on soft tyres and finished the second in fifth, quicker than his Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing teammate.
 
Sebastien Bourdais made a substantial improvement over his performance this morning, of which he said "we got lost doing nothing which is why we got really lost." Although afflicted by severe understeer, he managed sixth fastest, and will start second thanks to his fastest time from yesterday.
 
Although Tracy was disappointed to end up in 11th, despite being just 0.27 seconds from pole, amazingly he will still start ahead of two championship contenders.

Power, as Wilson alluded to, was obstructed by a backmarker and took 12th on the grid, while Robert Doornbos of Team Minardi USA wound up 15th, unable to get the car handling on the soft tyres.

Pos  Driver              Team                   Time
 1.  Justin Wilson       RSPORTS                49.039
 2.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas/Lanigan    49.180  + 0.141
 3.  Dan Clarke          Minardi Team USA       49.092  + 0.053
 4.  Oriol Servia        Forsythe               49.106  + 0.067
 5.  Neel Jani           PKV Racing             49.151  + 0.112
 6.  Graham Rahal        Newman/Haas/Lanigan    49.178  + 0.139
 7.  Alex Tagliani       RSPORTS                49.183  + 0.144
 8.  Tristan Gommendy    PKV Racing             49.192  + 0.153
 9.  Simon Pagenaud      Team Australia         49.255  + 0.216
10.  Bruno Junqueira     Dale Coyne Racing      49.255  + 0.216
11.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe Championship  49.270  + 0.231
12.  Will Power          Team Australia         49.397  + 0.358
13.  Jan Heylen          Conquest Racing        49.410  + 0.371
14.  Mario Dominguez     Pacific Coast          49.609  + 0.570
15.  Robert Doornbos     Minardi Team USA       49.654  + 0.615
16.  Katherine Legge     Dale Coyne Racing      49.808  + 0.769
17.  Alex Figge          Pacific Coast          50.083  + 1.044