49°16′34″N 123°6′24″W / 49.27611°N 123.10667°W / 49.27611; -123.10667

The 2001 Molson Indy Vancouver was a Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) motor race held on September 2, 2001 at Concord Pacific Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was the 15th round of the 2001 CART season. Roberto Moreno won the shortened race by five seconds over Gil de Ferran and Michael Andretti.

Moreno won his second and final CART race by passing multiple contenders throughout the race, also earning Patrick Racing its final victory in open-wheel racing in the process. de Ferran earned his fifth podium of 2001 and moved into first place in the points standings, but he still did not have a win for Team Penske at this point in the season. Andretti picked up his fourth podium of the year and his sixth overall at Vancouver.

The race was marked by multiple incidents and crashes that forced CART officials to call a timed race that ended the event after two hours and 98 of the scheduled 100 laps. Despite starting on pole and leading the most laps, Alex Tagliani was forced to retire from the lead after 68 laps when his Ford-Cosworth engine let go in dramatic fashion, once again thwarting his attempts to take his first victory in the series.

Vancouver was the second Canadian stop for the CART teams after Toronto, and the series had seen massive swings in form from both drivers and teams. Rookie Bruno Junqueira, who had previously been scrapping for points in the midfield, scored his first win at the preceding race in Road America. After winning the race in Toronto, Michael Andretti had been plagued with multiple DNFs before finally finishing second at Road America and was looking to get his pursuit of the championship back on track. Defending series champion Gil de Ferran, after a lukewarm start to 2001, was beginning to power his way to the front of the point standings, coming to Vancouver on the heels of three consecutive top-5 finishes and a pole position at Mid-Ohio. His teammate, Helio Castroneves, was currently leading the standings by a slim margin over Kenny Bräck.

But the big story going into Vancouver was the rise of Forsythe Racing and the string of good results by Canadian drivers Patrick Carpentier and Alex Tagliani. After struggling for points at the beginning of the year, their luck began to change after Tagliani scored his first career podium in front of the home fans in Toronto, followed by Carpentier scoring his first win at the next race at Michigan. From then on, both drivers had scored solid points in every race before Vancouver, including two more podiums for Carpentier. Analysts expected both Forsythe Racing drivers to continue their momentum now that they were back on Canadian soil.

Also going into the weekend, CART announced a three-year extension for the Vancouver race, meaning that the 2002 season would see three Canadian races, after it was confirmed that Montreal would host the series at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

Practice would be a challenge for the teams and the drivers, as the weather forecasts called for light showers on Friday and again during qualifying on Saturday. For morning practice on Friday, however, the inclement weather stayed away long enough for the full session to be completed. Many driver experienced grip issues on the slick temporary street course, especially at the 90-degree right-handed Turn 1. Dario Franchitti stalled twice on track during the first session with fuel pressure issues while Max Wilson nudged into the Turn 12 barriers, causing moderate damage to the nose of the car. At the end of the session, Tony Kanaan had managed to top the time sheets with a 1:01.958 followed by Cristiano da Matta with a 1:01.968 and de Ferran with a 1:02.302. The top twelve cars were separated by less than one second.