Dominguez Plays Starring Role

After a fraught early summer period during which he had a string of crashes, the Mexican has steadily put his season back on track over the last three races.

He was fast all weekend in Colorado and set the pace in the Sunday morning warm-up. But his route to second place was more adventurous than he bargained for after he locked up his brakes at Turn Four on lap 72 and slid down the escape road - a miscue for which he had a novel explanation.

"I almost lost the podium because I made a mistake and I pressed the water button instead of the radio," he said.

"All the water splashed in my helmet. So my visor got all dirty, then it just started to fog up really bad. In fact, during the (full-course) yellow I had to take off my glove completely, try to wipe it from the inside and put it back on again. That was a mess.

"It got so bad that I lost concentration and missed the braking point. I figured, oh my - I just had to go through the run-off area because I didn't want to risk not finishing the race.

"Then I said to myself if I don't make the podium the team are going to kill me. So thank God I did it!"

He did it by virtue of a spirited recovery drive, which saw him pass the ailing Timo Glock for third place on lap 87 and then snatch second with a last-of-the-late-brakers move on AJ Allmendinger at the final corner of the penultimate lap.