Simpson tops practice 3
Stephen Simpson grabbed the top spot in the closing seconds of the final practice session at Monterrey, as the sun finally shone on the A1 Grand Prix Series in Mexico
The South African pushed Switzerland's Neel Jani down the order on his final flying lap of the twisty 2.1-mile circuit.
To make matters worse for Jani, he went from first to fourth in the final minute as former Grand Prix drivers Ralph Firman and Jos Verstappen found bursts of speed to push Ireland and the Netherlands into the top three.
The drizzly rain of yesterday might have gone, but the drivers still had to deal with a slippery circuit.
The heavy layer of dust that the drivers had mentioned yesterday was now clearly visible in the dry. The red coating meant that many of the drivers chose to wait early in the session for the racing line to be cleaned before venturing out.
Once everyone was out on track, the times predictably began to tumble. Simpson was always a factor, but others to feature at the top of the times included Germany's Timo Scheider, Portugal's Alvaro Parente and Verstappen.
Team Mexico could be facing an about-turn on driver choice following this session.
Regular driver Salvador Duran found himself with a chance to impress after Atlantic racer David Martinez failed to shine on his home circuit yesterday.
Duran was seventh fastest in this session and the team will now decide which driver to nominate for qualifying, which takes place this afternoon.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Stephen Simpson South Africa 1:24.016 12 2. Ralph Firman Ireland 1:24.636 + 0.620 26 3. Jos Verstappen Netherlands 1:24.892 + 0.876 25 4. Neel Jani Switzerland 1:24.905 + 0.889 14 5. Christian Fittipaldi Brazil 1:24.952 + 0.936 22 6. Robbie Kerr Great Britain 1:25.111 + 1.095 16 7. Salvador Duran Mexico 1:25.153 + 1.137 27 8. Bryan Herta USA 1:25.248 + 1.232 21 9. Enrico Toccacelo Italy 1:25.336 + 1.320 20 10. Alexandre Premat France 1:25.442 + 1.426 11 11. Alvaro Parente Portugal 1:25.453 + 1.437 19 12. Graham Rahal Lebanon 1:25.684 + 1.668 24 13. Timo Scheider Germany 1:25.764 + 1.748 14 14. Patrick Carpentier Canada 1:25.874 + 1.858 20 15. Ananda Mikola Indonesia 1:25.986 + 1.970 14 16. Patrick Friesacher Austria 1:26.054 + 2.038 19 17. Alex Yoong Malaysia 1:26.064 + 2.048 14 18. Matt Halliday New Zealand 1:26.685 + 2.669 11 19. Hayanari Shimoda Japan 1:27.031 + 3.015 24 20. Tomas Enge Czech Republic 1:27.684 + 3.668 6 21. Christian Jones Australia 1:28.358 + 4.342 17 22. Qinghua Ma China 1:30.322 + 6.306 26
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