Sebastien Bourdais strengthened his hold on the points lead in the Champ Car World Series by claiming the provisional pole for the Montreal Molson Indy on Friday.
A fast lap of 1 minute, 21.924 seconds -- a speed of 191.538kph -- was good enough to take the top spot in the session shortened by nine minutes when Canadian rookie Andrew Ranger crashed hard and had to be helped from his battered car.
The shaken up Ranger was checked at the track medical facility and released. He was immediately cleared by Champ Car medical personnel to drive.
The shortened session kept both Bourdais' Newman-Haas Racing teammate Oriol Servia and former series champion Paul Tracy from challenging the reigning champion's pole speed.
Servia, filling in for injured Bruno Junqueira, who won this race last August, was second at 1:22.010 (191.337kph), while Tracy was third at 1:22.400 (190.431kph).
"I wasn't that far behind Sebastien and I was on a very fast lap when the red flag came out," Servia said. "But, tomorrow, everybody will be faster and we'll see what happens. I know I have a very good car because it's the same one that Bruno won in last year."
Bourdais got one point for taking the provisional pole, extending his lead over Tracy to 54 with one more point up for grabs in qualifying on Saturday and a maximum of 34 on Sunday. It also assured the Frenchman of a front row start, no matter what happens in the final round of time trials.
"We picked up on where we left it last year," said Bourdais, who won the pole and led the first 20 laps before a collision with A.J. Allmendinger cost him a shot at the victory. "It's a very good feeling to be able to secure a front row starting position."
Tracy said he remains confident he can give Bourdais a run for the title.
"We need to start making up some points and picking up some ground pretty soon, with only five races left, but we know we're capable of winning every race," Tracy said. "Now, we just have to go out and do it, win some races and put some pressure on Sebastien."
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