LAUSITZ, Germany, May 10 (UPI) -- Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais won his third pole of the season Saturday for the Champ Car World Series German 500 at EuroSpeedway, but the weekend belongs to Alex Zanardi.
Bourdais, who also had the fastest time in practice, was the final qualifier. He recorded a top lap of 196.832 miles per hour in 37 seconds around the 2-mile track.
Newman/Haas Racing teammate Bruno Junqueira of Brazil was the next-to-last qualifier and held the top position with a speed of 195.716 mph until Bourdais took the track.
Bourdais gave Newman/Haas its first pole on an oval since Rio de Janeiro in 1999.
"It's great to be on pole for my first Champ Car oval race," the Frenchman said. "The car has been great for the whole meeting so far and I hope it will feel as good in the race."
Zanardi, a two-time CART champion (1997-98), returned to the EuroSpeedway Lausitz, nearly two years after the tragic accident that cost the Italian both of his legs. Zanardi is acting as a grand marshal for the race.
"I am happy to be back at EuroSpeedway," he said. "It is great to see so many friendly faces and to receive such a fantastic welcome. Just look at it like I made a 1 1/2-year pit stop."
On Sunday, Zanardi will run 13 laps in a specially designed car. It is the same number of laps left in the race when he crashed while leading in 2001.
"Motor racing will be over for me after that, even if I will always love the sport," he said. "I don't want to lose my family. I want to do it as a gesture to thank my fans. I have no fear at all. After that, my career will be over."
Michel Jourdain Jr. of Mexico qualified third with a time of 37.274 and a speed of 195.386 mph. But the Team Rahal car failed post-qualifying techincal inspection and will start on the tail end of the grid.
The violation also will result in a $10,000 fine for Team Rahal, which has protested. The appeal was to be heard by a panel of judges.
Mario Haberfeld of Brazil was fourth, ahead of England's Darren Manning.
"We had a very good result after a difficult day," Haberfeld said. "This morning, we had an engine problem and had to switch to the backup car. We lost about an hour of practice. When we got back out, we had to change our plan and work on qualifying setup."
Paul Tracy, the series points leader, had a poor session and will start 16th in the 19-car field.
"This is not very good, obviously," he said. "The car has too much drag. I was running flat out all the way around. I did not even have to steer. I did not think it would be this critical. I gave it everything, but the car is not responding.
"We went to Brands Hatch (England) with too much downforce and since we could take only one aerodynamic configuration package for this European trip, it turns out that it's hurting us both ways since we had to retire from the race at Brands."
Tracy holds an 11-point lead over Junqueira in the standings.
