ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Feb. 22 (UPI) -- French rookie Sebastien Bourdais retained the pole position Saturday for the season-opening Champ Car series Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Bourdais became the first driver to start his first Champ Car race from the top position since Nigel Mansell in 1993 at Surfers Paradise.
"It feels very good," said Bourdais, the F3000 champion who averaged 106.710 miles per hour in a Ford/Lola. "It's been very difficult to hope to get a better result. This is such a good way to start the season, on pole for my first Champ Car race is great. I will do my best and I will try to win."
Due to weather concerns, the session started 15 minutes early as drivers attempted to improve Friday's speeds.
Paul Tracy had the pole briefly on Saturday, but Bourdais regained it quickly. Tracy will start second in a Ford/Lola with a speed of 105.758 mph.
"I'm not a fantastic qualifier and need two or three laps to get going," Tracy said. "But everytime I was on a quick lap we seemed to get a red flag, so my best time is one of my warm-up laps, which is a bit frustrating. But the front row is a good place to be."
The qualifying session was interrupted by several red flags for spins and minor incidents.
Mexico's Adrian Fernandez qualified third with Tracy's Player's Forsythe teammate Patrick Carpentier in the fourth position.
"I'm happy to see two team Player's cars in he top four," Carpentier said. "We really pushed to the limit on the fast lap. I see many opportunities to pass (for race), but it's going to be a long race."
Michel Jourdain Jr. of Mexico was fifth and Brazilian rookie Mario Haberfeld was the fastest of the Ford/Reynard's in sixth place. Haberfeld, 26, resides in nearby Key West, Fla.
Only two drivers failed to improve their times, one of them being Brazilian Bruno Junqueira. He dropped from second on Friday to seventh on the grid. A spin and red flag during the session cost him a run which could have been good enough for third place.
The Champ Car World Series was known as CART last year. Defending champion Cristiano da Matta of Brazil has moved on to the Formula One series.
The 105-lap Grand Prix of St. Petersburg will get the green flag at 1 p.m. EST Sunday.
