Junqueira tops damp warm-up
With his final lap on the wet but drying Circuito Hermanos Rodriguez, Bruno Junqueira stole top slot from his Newman/Haas Racing teammate Sebastien Bourdais by 0.016 seconds
The Brazilian, who will start from third on the grid, behind pole-sitter Justin Wilson and Bourdais, lapped the track in 1:38.062, an average speed of 101.838mph, to head a list of 12 drivers covered by a second. Lap times were almost 14 seconds down on dry qualifying.
Ryan Briscoe did a sterling job for RuSPORT to wind up third, 0.3 seconds up on teammate Wilson, while Alex Tagliani, who always excels in treacherous track conditions, clocked fourth.
Oriol Servia took until his 14th lap to dislodge PKV Racing teammate Katherine Legge (who completed 12 laps) from the top six, while Antonio Pizzonia finally showed some potential in the Rocketsports entry, heading teammate and local hero Mario Dominguez for the first time this weekend.
Forsythe Championship Racing's stand-in drivers Buddy Rice and David Martinez languished at the back of the field, but many teams were conserving their wet-weather tyres in case of further showers this afternoon.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Bruno Junqueira Newman/Haas 1:38.062 2. S.Bourdais Newman/Haas 1:38.078 + 0.016 3. Ryan Briscoe RuSPORT 1:38.138 + 0.076 4. Alex Tagliani Team Australia 1:38.285 + 0.223 5. Oriol Servia PKV 1:38.428 + 0.366 6. Justin Wilson RuSPORT 1:38.453 + 0.391 7. Katherine Legge PKV 1:38.712 + 0.650 8. Antonio Pizzonia Rocketsports 1:38.765 + 0.703 9. Jan Heylen Dale Coyne 1:38.815 + 0.753 10. Mario Dominguez Rocketsports 1:38.824 + 0.762 11. Nelson Philippe CTE HVM 1:38.848 + 0.786 12. Will Power Team Australia 1:38.904 + 0.842 13. Dan Clarke CTE HVM 1:39.110 + 1.048 14. Andrew Ranger Mi-Jack Conquest 1:39.223 + 1.161 15. Charles Zwolsman Mi-Jack Conquest 1:40.039 + 1.977 16. Buddy Rice Forsythe Championship 1:40.050 + 1.988 17. David Martinez Forsythe Championship 1:40.396 + 2.334 18. Andreas Wirth Dale Coyne 1:41.169 + 3.107
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