page_title: 2001 Molson Indy Toronto
section_title: Practice and qualifying
hierarchical_section_title: 2001 Molson Indy Toronto / Practice and qualifying
context_page_description: The 2001 Molson Indy Toronto was a Championship Auto Racing Teams motor race held on July 15, 2001, at the Exhibition Place circuit in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was the tenth round of the 2001 CART season, the 16th annual edition of the Molson Indy Toronto, and the first of two events that were held in Canada. The 95-lap race was won by Team Motorola driver Michael Andretti, who started from the 13th position. Alex Tagliani finished second for the Forsythe Racing team, and Fernandez Racing driver Adrián Fernández came in third.
  Gil de Ferran won the pole position and maintained his lead throughout the race's first half. Andretti made contact with Scott Dixon on the first lap and made a pit stop along with a change of strategy to move up the field. Hélio Castroneves took over the lead after de Ferran made a pit stop for fuel and held it for 15 laps before he retired with a mechanical issue. Fernández and Tony Kanaan held the first position over the next seven laps. Andretti moved into first place on the 71st lap and maintained the position to win the race.
  There were eleven cautions and four lead changes by five different drivers during the course of the race.
context_section_description: Two practice sessions were held before the Sunday race: each lasted for 75 minutes. A test session, scheduled for Friday afternoon, ran for 90 minutes. Conditions were dry for the Friday practice sessions. De Ferran was fastest in the first practice session with a time of 59.107 seconds; his teammate Castroneves was second. Tony Kanaan, Jimmy Vasser, Tagliani, Christian Fittipaldi, Da Matta, Patrick Carpentier, Franchitti and Paul Tracy rounded out the session's top ten drivers. Four red flags came out: the first came when a fuel cover from Carpentier's car was located on the racing line, The second was for Bruno Junqueira' spin in turn eight and stalled on track, the third for Andretti who struck the turn eight tire barrier and damaged his left-front suspension; Bräck went onto the turn's run-off area to avoid hitting Andretti. The final stoppage was for de Ferran who slid into the turn one tire barrier and damaged his car's front.
  In the second practice session, a further four stoppages occurred; Alex Zanardi slid and made light contact with the turn eight tire barrier and did not restart, metal debris was spotted in between turns three and four, Max Wilson stalled his car after he spun in the third turn, and Franchitti and Memo Gidley made contact in turn five and the latter was sent into the tire barrier which heavily damaged his right-hand suspension while Franchitti's right-front wheel broke. De Ferran set the fastest lap of the day with a time of 58.400 seconds, ahead of Fittipaldi and Franchitti. Kanaan was fourth-fastest; ahead of Andretti and his teammate Tracy. Da Matta, Tagliani, Max Papis and Adrián Fernández followed in the top ten. Shinji Nakano paced the final practice session with a time of 58.133 seconds; Kanaan, Junqueira, De Ferran, Andretti, da Matta. Oriol Servià, Bryan Herta, Fernández and Maurício Gugelmin completed the top ten ahead of qualifying. The session was stopped four times: firstly for Vasser who stalled on the circuit; the second for Kanaan because his engine failed heading towards the start-finish line, the third was for Bräck who slid and hit the turn eight outside tyre wall with his left front wheel and his suspension was broken. The final red-flag was for Vasser who locked his brakes and spun 360 degrees onto turn eight's run-off area.
  Saturday afternoon's qualifying session lasted for 75 minutes. The cars were split into two groups with the leading championship point-standing leaders and the fastest two drivers from the previous road course race composing the second group. Both groups were allowed 30 minutes on the circuit with a 15-minute break in between the two groups recording their lap times. Under warm weather conditions, De Ferran clinched his first pole position of the season, his second at Toronto, and the twelfth of his career with a time of 57.703 seconds. He was joined on the grid's front row by teammate Castroneves who had the pole position until de Ferran's lap. Bräck qualified third, Kanaan fourth and Tagliani fifth (all three drivers went onto the track's run-off areas but continued without damage to their cars.) Franchitti, Fernández, Tracy, Roberto Moreno and Scott Dixon rounded out the top ten qualifiers. Servià was the fastest driver not to qualify in the top ten; his best lap was 0.534 seconds off de Ferran's pace. He was followed by Carpentier in twelfth. Andretti, 13th, slid and hit the turn one tire barrier lightly with the left front section of his nose cone; he later contacted the turn five wall with his right-rear tire on his final timed lap. Fittipaldi took 14th position, ahead of Herta who spun at turn nine without damaging his car. Vasser, da Matta, Michel Jourdain Jr., Gugelmin, Junqueira, Papis and Tora Takagi filled the next seven places on the grid. 23rd-place qualifier Gidley made contact with Carpentier who was braking heavily for the turn eight right-hander and Gidley damaged his front suspension heavily with his front wheels out of line. Both drivers were unhurt. Zanardi took 24th position. Wilson and Nakano qualified at the back of the grid in
caption: Gil de Ferran (pictured in 2005) had the twelfth pole position of his career.
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