Castroneves takes pole at Watkins Glen
Helio Castroneves has his third straight pole at Watkins Glen International. Now, if he can only escape his bad luck on race day.
In a near repeat of qualifying here two years ago, Castroneves bested Scott Dixon on Saturday, covering the 3.4-mile, 11-turn road circuit at 136.021 mph (1 minute, 29.1919 seconds) during the Firestone Fast Six at Watkins Glen, N.Y., a 10-minute showdown among the half-dozen fastest drivers in single-lap qualifying.
“I was so fast on my new tires at the end,” said Castroneves, who earned his IndyCar Series-record 21st pole and will start on the front row for the 37th time in 90 career races. “It was just fast.”
So, too, was Dixon, who again had the best time in the single-lap portion of qualifying for today’s Watkins Glen Grand Prix, then watched Castroneves beat his top speed of 135.449 in the showdown. Both drivers easily eclipsed the track record of 133.806 mph, which Castroneves set in September 2005.
“We definitely had the laps to do it. We just couldn’t piece them together,” said Dixon, who, like Castroneves, posted his top speed on his final lap. “I was getting a bit sketchy at the end trying to push it a little bit harder to make sure we could get the pole. We came up a little short. It’s disappointing and frustrating to be runner-up again. It’s still a good starting spot.”
The two women in the race fared poorly on a picture-perfect summer day with temperatures in the 80s. Danica Patrick qualified 15th at 130.809 mph, just three spots ahead of Sarah Fisher, who will start last.
Formula One
Lewis Hamilton moved a big step closer to becoming the first Englishman since Damon Hill in 1994 to win the British Grand Prix.
Hamilton took the pole position at Silverstone, England, for his first Formula One race in his homeland, and later attributed his success to the support of the crowd at the Silverstone circuit.
“You definitely get a confidence boost and you feel the support,” he said. “It is not just a certain group of people in the stands or certain places. Here it is the whole grandstand. It’s been fantastic and I really do appreciate the support.
“To see the amount of support I get and see the flags waving. I get a big buzz from that and get a lot of energy.”
Hamilton had a fastest lap of 1 minute, 19.997 seconds in his McLaren on the 3.2-mile circuit as time ran out in the qualifying session, edging Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari by 0.102 seconds.
Hamilton will try to extend his perfect 8-for-8 streak of top-three finishes in his rookie F1 season. He leads the driver standings with 64 points, 14 ahead of Fernando Alonso and 17 in front of Felipe Massa with nine races remaining.
“It was an extremely tense qualifying session. It was all down to the last lap,” Hamilton said.
Champ Car
If Sebastien Bourdais goes to Formula One next season, the Champ Car World Series will have plenty of reasons to remember him.
The 28-year-old Frenchman, aiming for an unprecedented fourth consecutive Champ Car title, grabbed the pole in the Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto by edging Justin Wilson with fewer than 10 seconds left in the final qualifying session.
It is his third pole of the season and the 28th of his Champ Car career, in its fifth season.
Bourdais and Wilson battled throughout the 30-minute session, trading the top spot several times before Bourdais, the provisional pole winner on Friday, turned a lap of 58.288-seconds (108.393 mph) to barely beat Wilson’s 58.299 (108.372).
“The lap before that I made a big mistake in the esses and really messed it up,” Bourdais said. “I knew I only had enough fuel for one more lap and it was a very hairy one. But the car was good enough for the pole today.”
Wilson said he could hardly believe it when his crew radioed that Bourdais has beaten him by such a close margin.
The Englishman, already on his final lap when he got the message, thought he might be able to regain the pole but couldn’t quite pull it off.
“I had my fast lap going but, coming out of (turn) six, I slid and hit the wall,” Wilson said.