Practice 1: Da Matta by a mile

"It's nice to be back on a road course because we've struggled a bit with our oval set-up," da Matta said.

Running his second event in a Lola-Honda, Kanaan managed 1m11.140s, followed by Kenny Brack and defending Laguna champion Max Papis. On the heels of last week's podium in Milwaukee, the Italian's performance gave the cash-strapped Sigma team another boost.

At the other end of the spectrum, Team Green was near the bottom of the speed charts with its Lola-Hondas. Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy both spun at Turn 3 and they ended the session near the foot of the timesheets, finishing just ahead of team colleague Michael Andretti in 17th and 18th respectively.

Both Fernandez Racing drivers (Adrian Fernandez and Shinji Nakano) also spun off without hitting anything, but Alex Tagliani extensively damaged his Player's/Forsythe Reynard-Ford at Turn 7 when he took action to avoid Christian Fittipaldi's slow car.