TORONTO Molson qualifier narrows CART gap

Bruno Junqueira is guaranteed a start on the front row for Sunday's race.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO -- Bruno Junqueira cut one point off Paul Tracy's lead in the CART series standings by winning the provisional pole for the Molson Indy on Friday.
Junqueira ran a lap at 59.486 seconds, going 106.210 mph around the 1.755-mile temporary street course at Exhibition Place. He earned one point for his qualifying effort, pulling within seven points of Tracy, and is guaranteed to start on the front row for Sunday's race.
"The pole is more important for the start of the race," Junqueira said. "But for sure the point can be more important for the championship, especially if I can beat Paul by one point."
Tracy, a Toronto native, qualified second and was the only other driver to break the one-minute mark with a lap at 59.803. Michel Jourdain was third at 1:00.002 and Oriol Servia was fourth, just seven-thousandths of a second behind Jourdain at 1:00.009.
Qualification complaint
Jourdain said he couldn't get a clean lap because Tracy was blocking him on the track. He said he informed CART about it, and claimed it was the third consecutive qualifying session in which Tracy has blocked him.
"I think something should have been done a long time ago, but CART has done nothing so I don't know," Jourdain said. "They always talk but they do nothing. I'm starting to get to the point where I think it's a waste of time to talk about it."
Jourdain and Tracy seemed amicable on the podium, chatting quietly while they waited for Junqueira to join them in their news conference. But later, he wondered if Tracy had a problem with him.
"When you have a problem with someone for three races in a row it's hard not to think it is something against you," Jourdain said.
Tracy led qualifying for most of the session, but lost his fast lap for bringing out a red flag with a spin. He still posted the second-fastest lap of the day later in qualifying.
On a wet and rainy afternoon, the drivers had to gamble on when to make their qualifying runs.
Junqueira went late and posted his lap in the waning moments under threatening skies with a nearly empty race track.
"I started to get worried that 'It's going to rain, it's not going to rain,' and I didn't know when to go," Junqueira said. "But when I went so late, I could put up a run with no traffic."
Tracy went out earlier, and was back in the pits watching when Junqueira topped him.
"I was pretty much done with 14 minutes to go and just had to wait and pray for rain," he said.
Weighing his options
Jacques Villeneuve could return to British American Racing next season, his manager said Friday.
Villeneuve, the 1997 Formula One champion, is in the final year of a five-year contract with BAR and his future is one of the most hotly debated topics in the series.
"Absolutely nothing has been decided yet," said Craig Pollock, Villeneuve's manager and a shareholder at BAR.
Because of his big salary -- estimated at $20 million a year, it ranks second in F1 only to five-time champion Michael Schumacher -- there's been speculation that BAR can't afford to resign him. But there are currently no open seats on the top teams, leaving Villeneuve's future in doubt.
He and Schumacher are the only active champions in the series, and Villeneuve has added appeal as the only North American driver in Formula One. Pollock, at the Molson Indy CART race where he is part-owner of Max Papis' team, said both of those have to be taken into consideration.
"Jacques is currently in the top two or three open-wheel drivers in the world," Pollock said. "He's won the Indy 500, he's won a CART championship and he's won a world title. He's just 32 years old and with the right equipment capable of winning another championship."