Allmendinger leads final practice
Forsythe Championship Racing's new recruit AJ Allmendinger continued his strong seam of form by topping this morning's free practice session
The American ran off the track at Turn 2 mid-session, but came out again and on his final flying lap nailed a quickest time of 58.175 seconds, an average of 121.537mph, beating reigning champion and current championship leader Sebastien Bourdais by 0.079 seconds.
The Newman/Haas Racing driver in turn was 0.029 seconds ahead of RuSPORT's Justin Wilson who appears to have got his car back to the form he displayed in yesterday's free practice but which went AWOL come first qualifying. Wilson's new teammate Cristiano da Matta appears to have improved his car also, and recorded seventh fastest time.
Compatriot Bruno Junqueira also managed to get in a good lap in the second Newman/Haas car to go fourth fastest, despite having two flying laps blocked by slower traffic.
Paul Tracy was fifth fastest, yet his time was just 0.121 seconds off teammate Allmendinger's top lap.
Notable improvements since yesterday's qualifying session were made by the Conquest team whose drivers Andrew Ranger (who lies third in the championship) and Charles Zwolsman were eighth and 13th fastest, while CTE Racing-HVM appeared to have lost some of their impressive pace from yesterday's hotter conditions, and slipped to 10th (Nelson Philippe) and 12th (Dan Clarke).
PKV Racing's Oriol Servia ended up in the Turn 11 tyre barriers again, after recording ninth fastest time, while teammate Katherine Legge was 14th, about 0.8 seconds behind.
Saturday practice times:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. AJ Allmendinger Forsythe 58.175 2. Sebastien Bourdais Newman/Haas 58.254 + 0.079 3. Justin Wilson RuSPORT 58.283 + 0.108 4. Bruno Junqueira Newman/Haas 58.286 + 0.111 5. Paul Tracy Forsythe 58.295 + 0.120 6. Alex Tagliani Team Australia 58.656 + 0.481 7. Cristiano da Matta RuSPORT 58.679 + 0.504 8. Andrew Ranger Conquest 58.995 + 0.820 9. Oriol Servia PKV 59.151 + 0.976 10. Nelson Philippe CTE-HVM 59.268 + 1.093 11. Will Power Team Australia 59.527 + 1.352 12. Dan Clarke CTE-HVM 59.694 + 1.519 13. Charles Zwolsman Conquest 59.808 + 1.633 14. Katherine Legge PKV 59.928 + 1.753 15. Mario Dominguez Dale Coyne 1:00.080 + 1.905 16. Jan Heylen Dale Coyne 1:00.318 + 2.143 17. Nicky Pastorelli Rocketsports 1:00.341 + 2.166 18. Tonis Kasemets Rocketsports 1:00.716 + 2.541
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