LEXINGTON, Ohio (AP) It used to be a sure thing that qualifying speeds would keep going up for the CART Grand Prix at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Drivers aren't convinced it will happen this year.

Patrick Carpentier's top qualifying speed Friday of 121.253 mph was about 3 mph slower than the track record. He then said that it's doubtful the record lap time of 1:05.3, which translates to a speed of 124.394 mph, will fall in Saturday's final qualifying session.

"We ran 1:05.7 during a test, but I'm not sure we're going to be that fast tomorrow," he said.

"I figure the pole time will be between 1:06 and 1:06.5," said Christian Fittipaldi, who qualified third. "We just need to continue to improve the car and qualify in the top three."

Cristiano da Matta, Fittipaldi's Newman-Haas teammate, was second-fastest on Friday. He agreed that speeds will be slower.

"Well, 1:05 seems pretty far away right now," he said. "It's strange. This track, I think it changes so much sometimes from one day to the other. When we tested here like one month ago, we did like 1:06. Today with the same car, we are doing 1:07."

Da Matta leads the driver standings by 38 points and has five victories and five poles this season.

Fittipaldi announced earlier this week that he will be driving for Petty Enterprises in NASCAR next year.

Qualifying records were broken at the 2¼-mile, 13-turn road course in north central Ohio every year from 1990-99, when Dario Franchitti set the current standard. Gil de Ferran tied it the next year and was a shade slower in winning the 2001 pole.

Carpentier gained one point Friday for being the fastest first-day qualifier and earned a guaranteed front-row spot for Sunday's race. With 73 points, he is fourth in the driver standings, one point behind Bruno Junqueira and Michel Jourdain Jr., who are tied for third.

He was aided by some late developments.

Carpentier posted his fast lap with about 90 seconds to go in the one-hour qualifying session when Tony Kanaan and Toro Takagi both spun out. Kanaan was able to continue, but Takagi lost power, bringing out both the red flag signaling a temporary stoppage and the checkered flag ending the session.

"You need to catch a little bit of a break sometimes," Carpentier said. "I crossed the line (after his fast lap) and my team came on the radio and said `P1 (position one), P1.' Right after that, I heard, `red flag, red flag.' I immediately asked my crew if I was still P1 and they said yes. Starting up front here is very important, so we're happy with the result."

The 30-year-old Canadian, winner of CART's other Ohio race in Cleveland last month, hasn't started on the pole in four years.

Being among the top qualifiers at Mid-Ohio is important because it has few good spots for passing. No one has won a race here from farther back than eighth, and nine of the previous 20 winners have come from the pole.

Rounding out the top 10 in Friday qualifying were Alex Tagliani, Tony Kanaan, Scott Dixon, Michael Andretti, Takagi, Kenny Brack and Junqueira.

Max Papis, returning after five races, was 16th among the 18 cars. Papis is replacing Adrian Fernandez, who broke his left hip at Vancouver two weeks ago.

"It is a completely different situation to be in a new car with a new team," Papis said. "To get the right chemistry is not easy. It takes more than an hour-an-a-half of practice."

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