De Ferran tops practice

"I made no secret yesterday that I was not happy with my car," he said. "We had a long chat last night with the engineers and we decided to change everything. It is a completely different car."

Polesitter Alex Tagliani was second, continuing to be happy with his weekend.

"Was good," Tagliani said. "It wasn't too good at the beginning but we changed it a little bit at a time. It was very good at the end. I ran in traffic too and it felt good."

Asked about the track conditions he said: "It's slippery. We're going to have to be careful because we won't have a consistent car all the way."

Unfortunately, Kenny Brack was unlucky, shunting his team Rahal Reynard at the end of the session. There was damage to the right front suspension, which may requireswitching to his spare car.

De Ferran's teammate Helio Castro-Neves suffered a failed gearbox, losing track time as a result.

According to all the weather reports the temperature will continue climb before the race, making the Rio 200 likely to be the scene of considerable attrition.