Qualifying 1: Fernandez on home form

The Champ Car veteran, who drives for his own team, guaranteed himself a front row starting position for Sunday's race in the dying minutes of the session. With Champ Car's new qualifying format, two one-hour sessions run on Friday and Saturday count for the grid, with drivers limited to the number of laps they can complete in each, just like in Formula 1.

"It's an incredible feeling!" said a delighted Fernandez. To achieve this here in Mexico is just fantastic. The team has put so much effort into this year. It's one thing to achieve this dream driving for somebody else, but doing it with your own team is just something very very special."

With the F1-style system, everyone dashed out of the pits at the end of the session to go for a time, making it tough to get a clear lap. British ace Dario Franchitti managed to go second fastest, but he was frustrated. "It was just horrendous trying to get a clear lap out there," he said. "Coming out of the pits at the end, I had Max [Papis] in front of me and Michael [Andretti] behind me. I caught Max and he was holding me up, even though he was on a fast lap. I couldn't back off any more because I had Michael pushing me from behind. It's unfortunate because it cost us time and maybe a point for the pole today."

Under another new rule, Christian Fittipaldi, Paul Tracy and Patrick Carpentier all lost their fastest laps for causing red flags. Fittipaldi's time would have given him pole.

But he and the others will have another chance today to topple Fernandez from the top spot in the second one-hour session.

For full qualifying session 1 results, click here.