Patrick Carpentier was vaulted into his first pole of the CART season after Michel Jourdain's fastest lap was disallowed because his car was underweight.
Jourdain will start 13th place on the grid Sunday at Laguna Seca, based on his Friday qualifying speed of 182.660kph. His lap Saturday was ruin at 186.442kph.
"We are shocked and baffled at this development," Jourdain's team said Saturday in a statement. "The crew weighed the Gigante car just prior to qualifying and the car was overweight. The numbers just simply don't add up.
"We are currently investigating the discrepancy in the weight of the car."
Carpentier, fifth in the CART standings, initially was pleased just to move up to third on the grid after qualifying fifth Friday.
"For some reason with us, the seasons always started slow," he said. "I am looking forward to the rest of the season."
His lap at 186.322kph was well short of the qualifying record of 191.421kph set in 2000 by Helio Castroneves. Carpentier had not won a pole since last August at Mid-Ohio.
Bruno Junqueira, the fourth-fastest qualifier at 185.738kph, will start alongside Carpentier in the Grand Prix of Monterey because he took the provisional pole Friday.
Paul Tracy now will start third with a speed of 186.066 kph, alongside rookie Sebastien Bourdais, who went 184.93kph. Tracy won the first three races of the year and Bourdais, the next two.
Jourdain got his first CART victory in 126 starts two weeks ago at Milwaukee to assume the series points lead with 77. The pole point also was given to Carpentier. Junqueira and Tracy trail Jourdain by 10 points.
The development was a bitter one for Team Rahal, which was hoping Bobby Rahal could see his eighth victory at Laguna Seca. Rahal, the 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner and a three-time CART champion, has won here four times as a driver and three as an owner.
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