CART FEDEX CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: GRAN PREMIO

November 16, 2002

Christian Fittipaldi

Dario Franchitti

Bruno Junqueira

DARIO FRANCHITTI: Our main objective today was to get on the pole. That's what we were out there trying to do. The lap I went off with was pretty good. I know Bruno [Junqueira] had his trials in that session, as well. I think we were putting some pressure on him. We started off this morning with a different setup on the car, looking for more performance. Actually it made the car worse. We went back to our initial setup for the qualifying session. The car felt very good. I think it is unfortunate there was a couple of interesting calls made by race control during the session, the first of which was sort of the knee-jerk reaction for the red [flag] for the [Tora] Takagi incident, then when some oil was spilled on the track, on one of the fastest corners, they still didn't do anything about it. I went off in an accident, and only then was the red flag brought out. The track was incredibly dangerous. I think if these guys don't know the difference between a dangerous and safe track; they should be doing their job. Absolutely not acceptable.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I think the accident was the proof of that, to be perfectly honest. I spoke to [CART Chief Orthopedic Consultant] Dr. Trammell, and he told me he radioed the situation into race control. It's not a good situation. Unfortunate to have one pretty damaged car, but I think I'm pretty lucky, though to be able to race tomorrow.

CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI: Well, it wasn't that big of an effort because of everything that happened. I'm pretty happy to be in the front row. But unfortunately things didn't go according to plan. I think that we had a car that we could have gone into a fight together with these other guys for the pole position. I was really happy with my car this morning. I ran like really old tires this morning, so we had a good balance in it. I thought when it came down to the time trials, we really had a shot at it. There were a couple things that happened during the session that I really didn't understand, like when we went green again when the first car went by the start/finish, and the other time we went green when the flag dropped. There were a couple things that I didn't understand. I guess everyone has to move on. I'm pretty happy being in the front row. I'm going to try my very best tomorrow to win. I imagine Bruno is going to say the same thing, and also Dario, probably the other 16 guys out there. It's going to be really fun tomorrow.

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: It's very good that I kept the pole today. It was very difficult qualifying because I couldn't get two laps in a row. When I went out, I did one lap. After the red flag, it was very strange because, as Dario said. The only time I did two laps in a row was when I did one lap and the next lap, somebody blew off, I think it was [Paul] Tracy, lots of oil on the track, but I did my best lap. Then at the red flag, they took out my lap at that time. The track was pretty slippery, especially on the chicanes - that's the high-speed part of the track. I mean, after they red flagged it, they cleaned it, it wasn't completely fast as before, but I could put one good lap and get the pole from Tony [Kanaan]. It's good to start from the pole. I hope I can do a good race.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I don't know. We might be able to run the primary car. I don't know how badly it's damaged. It took a pretty big hit. I think it might have broken the gearbox. The guys are looking at that right now.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I think with the heat, it maybe slowed down a bit. I think we improved our cars today. Some of the laps were quicker than Bruno's pole from yesterday. Again, Bruno said he had trouble with the same situation. I think Christian did, too.

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: I think the track was a little bit slower today. I could go as fast as yesterday, but as I said I couldn't get as fast because of Turn 1, 2 and 3. I think today nobody could get a lap. I don't think anybody is happy with their lap time because of so many red flags, and even because of the oil.

CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI: I think the track was very quick yesterday. It's not that it got slower today, it was very quick yesterday. We had sort of abnormal conditions. It was really cold. They thought it was going to be a little bit hotter over here. Probably if we had this heat yesterday, we would have been going quicker today. Unfortunately, we had excellent conditions yesterday.

CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI: Drive my very best, everything that I can do tomorrow. As I said before, there are drivers that are not going to be here next year that are definitely going to do their very best. The race could be very interesting. I just hope that everyone can be really civilized going into the first corner, that we don't have a problem going into the first turn. I think if we make it safe through the first corner, then you guys are going to see some real racing tomorrow, a lot of people trying instead of only 100%, 101%.

DARIO FRANCHITTI: I think for passing, there's a long straight, Turn 1, there's maybe a couple other places on the track can you make a move. A nice feeling going into a race that you know you can actually make some moves. It should be a fun race tomorrow.

CHRISTIAN FITTIPALDI: I think there are some passing places here, although it's not that easy to run really close. But the fact that we have a very slow corner that puts us along the straightaway, that makes it a little bit easier for you to run really close. On the back section where you have the right-left, right-left, it's a little bit harder to run very close there. I think we're going to be seeing some passing at the end of the straight and at the end of also like the back straight, at the end of that second straight.

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: I hope there will be no passing.

BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: It's a racetrack. When you're driving, don't even notice it's a baseball park.