Practice 3: De Ferran leads the way
CART Championship Series leader Gil de Ferran showed he's in the mood to wrap up the series on the streets of Surfers Paradise, Australia this weekend, by setting the pace in the first session run in the dry. But the Penske driver was nearly two seconds slower than Juan Pablo Montoya's pole time from last year.
Bright sun and slight winds greeted the CART teams on Saturday morning for the final session before qualifying, a welcome change from Friday's rain which limited most drivers' running to just installation laps. De Ferran's best was set in his back-up car, and was 0.168 faster than Roberto Moreno's Patrick Reynard-Toyota and Dario Franchitti's Team Green Reynard-Honda.
Helio Castroneves, who still has a mathematical chance of winning the championship, was fourth quickest in the second Penske, the circuit commentators joking that if Helio were to have any hope of being champion then he needed to lock his team mate in his hotel room.
Kenny Brack, de Ferran's other challenger, again struggled, ending the session 20th in his Team Rahal Lola-Ford despite the fact that his team mate Max Papis ened up in seventh position. The odds are stacked against the Swede as all four of his wins this season have come on the ovals.
Tony Kanaan heavily damaged the front his Mo Nunn Racing car with an off at Turn 2 early in the session, and had to switch to the back-up for the remainder.
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