Gommendy misses front row slot

However, the Frenchman ran off the road on to the grass on his very next lap and stalled. Although he looked to be well clear of the track, he was eventually adjudged to be stopped in a dangerous place, a red flag was thrown, and Gommendy's fastest time was deleted.

This left Robert Doornbos at the top of the leader board with a lap of 1:11.629 (98.607 mph), which means the Minardi Team USA driver will retain the front-row starting slot he attained by being second quickest to Justin Wilson yesterday.

Second quickest was Graham Rahal who, after the red flag, set a lap just 0.018 seconds short of a front row spot.

Teammate Sebastien Bourdais complained of a lack of grip but clocked sixth fastest time, separated from his Newman/Haas/Lanigan teammate by the two RSPORTS cars of Wilson and Alex Tagliani, and Team Australia's Will Power.

Paul Tracy was seventh fastest, but Forsythe Championship Racing teammate Oriol Servia was curiously 1.8 seconds off, ahead of only the Pacific Coast Motorsports pair.

However, the times are irrelevant to the grid positions for tomorrow, thus Gommendy will start from fifth - one of three French drivers starting in the top six.

Starting grid:

Pos  Driver              Team                   Time
 1.  Justin Wilson       RSPORTS                58.000  
 2.  Robert Doornbos     Minardi Team USA       58.214  + 0.214
 3.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas/Lanigan    58.308  + 0.308
 4.  Alex Tagliani       RSPORTS                58.363  + 0.363
 5.  Tristan Gommendy    PKV Racing             58.399  + 0.399
 6.  Simon Pagenaud      Team Australia         58.448  + 0.448
 7.  Will Power          Team Australia         58.469  + 0.469
 8.  Graham Rahal        Newman/Haas/Lanigan    58.639  + 0.639
 9.  Dan Clarke          Minardi Team USA       58.692  + 0.692
10.  Neel Jani           PKV Racing             58.805  + 0.805
11.  Oriol Servia        Forsythe               58.926  + 0.926
12.  Jan Heylen          Conquest Racing        59.181  + 1.181
13.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe               59.418  + 1.418
14.  Bruno Junqueira     Dale Coyne Racing      59.696  + 1.696
15.  Alex Figge          Pacific Coast          59.708  + 1.708
16.  Katherine Legge     Dale Coyne Racing    1:00.421  + 2.421
17.  Ryan Dalziel        Pacific Coast        1:04.275  + 6.275

Saturday qualifying times (wet):

 1.  Robert Doornbos     Minardi Team USA     1:11.629
 2.  Graham Rahal        Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1:11.647  + 0.018
 3.  Justin Wilson       RSPORTS              1:11.670  + 0.041
 4.  Will Power          Team Australia       1:11.699  + 0.070
 5.  Alex Tagliani       RSPORTS              1:11.941  + 0.312
 6.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1:12.063  + 0.434
 7.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe             1:12.249  + 0.620
 8.  Dan Clarke          Minardi Team USA     1:12.327  + 0.698
 9.  Neel Jani           PKV Racing           1:12.414  + 0.785
10.  Tristan Gommendy    PKV Racing           1:12.443  + 0.814
11.  Simon Pagenaud      Team Australia       1:12.714  + 1.085
12.  Bruno Junqueira     Dale Coyne Racing    1:12.877  + 1.248
13.  Katherine Legge     Dale Coyne Racing    1:13.591  + 1.962
14.  Jan Heylen          Conquest Racing      1:13.745  + 2.116
15.  Oriol Servia        Forsythe             1:14.039  + 2.410
16.  Alex Figge          Pacific Coast        1:14.742  + 3.113
17.  Ryan Dalziel        Pacific Coast        1:15.389  + 3.760