Sat practice: Mexicans to the fore

Jourdain ran only ten laps during the 75-minute session in his Team Rahal Lola, managing a best time of 1m29.484sec. Dominguez was just an eyeblink behind on 1m29.491s in his Herdez Competition Lola, while Oriol Servia rounded out the top three with a 1m29.551s lap in the Patrick Racing Lola.

The Forsythe Racing duo of Patrick Carpentier and CART championship leader Paul Tracy both found trouble. Carpentier slid off in the wet at Turn 12 just ten minutes into the session and damaged the right-front corner of his car, while Tracy backed into the Turn 6 tyre wall with a similar amount of time remaining at the end of the session. Carpentier ended sixth fastest behind Bruno Junqueira while Tracy was 13th.

However, Tracy is guaranteed to start no lower than second no matter
how many drivers eclipse his Friday provisional pole lap of 1m28.842s. The main points of interest heading into final qualifying will be whether Junqueira can turn the table on his rival or whether one of the Mexican contingent can emerge on top on home ground.