Montoya quickest on day one at St Louis

At the time, he was fastest of his rivals. And if any of them thought that damaging his main car would slow him, they were wrong. His third lap in the back up car took him to the top of the lists again, a full 0.468s ahead, or 3mph faster than anyone else in that session, although 0.010s slower than Papis's morning time. Max could only manage 18th quickest in the afternoon.

Montoya was wearing the new HANS safety system for the first time, and gave it the thumbs up after his crash.

In a week that Mercedes announced it was leaving the series, all four engine manufacturers had a car in the top four spots, with Montoya's Toyota heading Helio Castroneves's Honda, Tony Kanaan's Mercedes and Kenny Brack's Ford.

Championship leader Gil de Ferran was sixth, Paul Tracy 10th, Michael Andretti 16th, and Adrian Fernandez 19th. Dario Franchitti, eighth in the championship, was seventh fastest.

Max Papis set the fastest time of the day in the morning session, 0.010 of a second faster than Montoya's warmer afternoon time with 21 drivers lapping within one second of the Italian.

The single qualifying session, where the cars run one at a time, takes place on Saturday, starting at 1:30pm CDT, 1830BST.

For the times from Friday's final practice at St Louisclick HERE.