Dominguez on top in warm-up
Raceday warm-up in Houston ended with pole-sitter Mario Dominguez topping the timesheets once more, outpacing championship leader Sebastien Bourdais
The Forsythe Championship Racing driver, who yesterday took the first pole position of his Champ Car career, worked down to a 1:00.302 lap in warm-up, a little over two seconds off his pole time.
Bourdais, who will start from fifth on the grid this afternoon, was forced to sit in the pits for eight minutes as a penalty for causing a red flag.
The Newman/Haas driver outbraked himself in Turn 5 and went down an escape road, obliging the Safety Team to bump start him.
Oriol Servia's pace in the PKV Racing entry once more reflected the potential of the team's package that was masked in qualifying, while front-row starter Bruno Junqeira finished fifth, splitting RuSPORT's Justin Wilson and AJ Allmendinger.
Surprises of the session were seventh and eighth quickest runners - Nicky Pastorelli (Rocketsports Racing), who will make his Champ Car race debut this evening, and Andrew Ranger of Conquest Racing.
Conquest are known to have eliminated the braking issues that dogged them at Champ Car's season-opener at Long Beach and appears to have resumed their 2005 pace.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Mario Dominguez Forsythe 1:00.302 16 2. Sebastien Bourdais Newman Haas 1:00.634 + 0.332 12 3. Oriol Servia PKV 1:00.858 + 0.556 19 4. Justin Wilson RuSPORT 1:00.913 + 0.611 17 5. Bruno Junqueira Newman Haas 1:00.973 + 0.671 18 6. A.J. Allmendinger RuSPORT 1:01.082 + 0.780 17 7. Nicky Pastorelli Rocketsports 1:01.262 + 0.960 19 8. Andrew Ranger Mi-Jack Conquest 1:01.680 + 1.378 16 9. Alex Tagliani Team Australia 1:01.779 + 1.477 20 10. Paul Tracy Forsythe 1:01.783 + 1.481 7 11. Charles Zwolsman Mi-Jack Conquest 1:01.791 + 1.489 16 12. Nelson Philippe CTE HVM 1:01.859 + 1.557 9 13. Cristiano da Matta Dale Coyne 1:02.158 + 1.856 14 14. Dan Clarke CTE HVM 1:02.446 + 2.144 6 15. Jan Heylen Dale Coyne 1:02.465 + 2.163 16 16. Will Power Team Australia 1:02.792 + 2.490 18 17. Katherine Legge PKV No Time 2
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