As much as Sebastien Bourdais wants to win a third straight Champ Car title, he definitely feels some empathy when one of his rivals has a tough time.
The 27-year-old Frenchman hit the rest of the field with an eye-popping qualifying lap on Saturday -- getting around the tight, bumpy 2.3km, seven-turn San Jose Grand Prix street circuit in 48.989 seconds (170.618kph).
That was considerably faster than anybody else in the 17-car field, giving Bourdais, the defending champion here, his fifth pole of the season and the 24th of his Champ Car World Series career.
PHOTO: AP
This latest pole also added one point to his margin over series runner-up Justin Wilson, last week's winner in Edmonton, who trailed Bourdais by 24 points heading into yesterday's 97-lap race.
Worse for Wilson, an Englishman who will turn 28 today, he was forced to start yesterday's race from 12th after crashing into a tire barrier during the qualifying warmup. His crew quickly brought out his backup car, but Wilson was barely able to improve on his Friday time.
"Justin wasn't very fast before that," Bourdais said. "He's been around eighth or ninth all weekend and, when you're having an average or bad weekend, you've got to make the best of it and, somehow, bring home some points."
"I'm sure Justin will be quite anxious to start in midpack. The key is to not make a big mistake, keep going and finish, finish, finish. You can't afford to make a mistake in this kind of championship battle," Bourdais said.
Wilson agreed with Bourdais.
"I'm just disappointed that I made a mistake and damaged the car," he said. "It cost us quite a bit in track position, which is one thing we didn't want to do. But we just need to go and make the best of a bad job now and try not to lose ground."
Paul Tracy, who won the provisional pole on Friday, was to start alongside Bourdais on the front row yesterday, followed by teammate A.J. Allmendinger, who is third in the standings, just 27 points behind.
Friday's qualifying guaranteed Tracy a front-row start and Allmendinger was actually faster on Saturday, with a lap of 49.264 (169.665kph). But Allmendinger was happy enough to be starting near the front on a track that is hard to pass on and likely to take a toll on cars in the middle and back of the pack.
"It's going to be a long, hot race that lends itself to making a lot of mistakes," Allmendinger said. "It's a bonus starting up front. It's going to be a key for everybody getting through turn one on the start."
Tracy, knocked out of two races in the early going this season by then-teammate Mario Dominguez, who has since been replaced by Allmendinger, said he hoped cool heads would prevail as the bunched field went into the first turn, a tight hairpin at the end of the longest straightaway on the course.
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