For the first time, the Grand Prix of Long Beach was headed by Jim Michaelian, who was previously the chief operating officer of the event from 1998 to 2001.[7] Michaelian replaced Chris Pook, the event's founder, as he took on the role of CART's president and CEO in December 2001.[8] Michaelian was disappointed that Pook left his role, but lauded many of his decisions since becoming the series' president and CEO: "I hated to see Chris go, but his assuming the leadership of CART was the best thing that could have happened to the series."[9] Pook was proud of how successful the Grand Prix of Long Beach had become, saying that "the venue is bigger than the show and you can't say that about every track."[10]
Practice and qualifying
There were two practice sessions that preceded the race on Sunday; the first session on Friday morning lasted for 90 minutes and the second session on Saturday morning ran for 75 minutes.[11] Fittipaldi lapped the fastest time of the first practice session at 1 minute and 9.478 seconds, one tenth of a second quicker than da Matta in second and two tenths better than Tora Takagi in third, with Kenny Bräck and Oriol Servià in the fourth and fifth positions.[12] Held under cloudy weather, Shinji Nakano and Paul Tracy caused two red flags in the session when they spun off in the ninth and first corners, respectively, and stalled their engines.[13]
Cristiano da Matta(pictured in 2006) was fastest in Friday's qualifying session and qualified second overall.
Qualifying was split into two 60-minute sessions, one on Friday afternoon and one on Saturday afternoon. Each driver was permitted to complete up to 15 timed laps in each session, and the starting order would be determined by their fastest times. The fastest driver(s) of both sessions would earn one championship point and were guaranteed to start on the grid's front row for Sunday's race. If a driver were to cause a red flag or attempt a 16th lap, their fastest time would not determine their starting position, and if a driver ran 17 or more laps, all of their times would be disallowed.[14] Because of the qualifying procedure, no drivers completed a single lap throughout the first fifteen minutes of the first qualifying session, as they planned to optimize their speed towards the end of the session.[15]
With less than two minutes left in the session, da Matta posted a lap of 1 minute and 9.092 seconds, which was enough for him to take the provisional pole position.[16] Fittipaldi qualified second with a lap that was 0.128 seconds slower than da Matta's, and Jimmy Vasser, who held the pole position until da Matta's lap, fell to third.[17] Vasser's Team Rahal teammate Jourdain Jr. had his quickest time barred for completing 16 laps, but his second-fastest time still placed him fourth on the provisional grid.[18] Despite Bruno Junqueira's struggles with handling, he qualified fifth,[19] with Tony Kanaan starting sixth.[20] Tagliani occupied seventh, though he made contact with the turn-ten wall and damaged the nose of his car during his last lap, which he felt could have improved his position up to third had he not crashed.[21] Bräck, Tracy, and Takagi rounded out the top ten, while Patrick Carpentier, Townsend Bell, Servià, Franchitti, Adrián Fernández, Michael Andretti, Mario Domínguez, and Nakano took the next eight positions.[20]Max Papis spun into the tire barriers in turn eight, and was dropped to 19th place for prompting the only stoppage of the session.[13][22]Scott Dixon complained of issues with his differentials, which left him 20th in the provisional starting order.[23]
Junqueira led Saturday morning's practice session, the last of the weekend, with a 1 minute and 8.006 second-lap, besting second-placed Vasser by 0.122 seconds. Fittipaldi, da Matta, and Bräck were third- through fifth-fastest.[24][25] Three red flags were issued in the session; the first was for Jourdain Jr. spinning and stalling in the fourth turn, the second for Dixon skidding off-course in turn eleven, and the third for Nakano losing control of his car in the eighth corner.[26]
"It takes a little bit of luck to get a pole position. Shell guys did a great job all week along. Both of our cars have been good, like I said yesterday. Good to finally get a point in the season. Hopefully we'll have a clean race tomorrow."
Overcast conditions returned for the second qualifying session, though the clouds partially subsided as the session progressed.[26] After Vasser experienced an oil leak in his car during the second practice session, he resorted to a backup car for qualifying.[28] He went on to clinch the eighth pole position of his career, and his first since the 1999 U.S. 500, with a time of 1 minute and 7.742 seconds.[29] Vasser recorded his fastest time with five minutes and 30 seconds remaining, beating da Matta by 0.003 seconds.[30]Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Junqueira and Bräck occupied the next two positions and Bell took fifth in what was the best qualifying effort of his career thus far.[31] Kanaan stayed in sixth,[32] ahead of seventh-placed Fernández, who felt that the red flags hindered him from posting a better time.[33] Tracy qualified eighth, though he made contact with the turn-ten wall and punctured his right-rear tire late in the session.[26][34] Fittipaldi caused one of three stoppages in the session when he spun and stalled in the ninth turn, leaving him ninth on the grid.[35] Jourdain Jr., Tagliani, Takagi, Servià, and Nakano took the tenth through 14th positions.[32] Andretti was left to start 15th after crashing into the turn-nine tire barriers as the session concluded.[26][36] Franchitti and Domínguez both complained of ill-handling cars and took the 16th and 17th spots,[34][37] while a malfunctioning gearbox prevented Papis from qualifying higher than 18th.[38] Dixon started 19th and Carpentier completed the grid in 20th after driving over rumble strips in turn one and sliding into the outside wall.[26][32]
Qualifying classification
The fastest lap in each of the two sessions is denoted in bold.
The drivers took to the track on Sunday at 8:45 AM PST (UTC−08:00) for a half-hour warmup session in dry and cloudy weather.[40] Dixon was the fastest driver of the session at 1 minute and 9.198 seconds, 0.028 seconds quicker than Kanaan in second place. Da Matta, Bräck, and Tagliani followed in the third through fifth positions.[41][42] The lone red flag was necessitated 1 minute into the session, when Vasser made contact with Nakano as the two drivers raced side-by-side and expelled debris from his car; Franchitti also sustained damage to his front wing after hitting some of the debris.[40]
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Jimmy Vasser (Team Rahal)
Bruno Junqueira (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Max Papis (Sigma Autosport)
