Power takes stunning Mexico pole

The Australian stopped the clocks at 1:23.558, 0.6 seconds quicker than his closest rival, lapping the 2.774-mile Hermanos Rodriguez Autodromo at an average of 119.515 mph. This comfortably eclipsed last year's pole of 1:24.8, and so established a new lap record.

"You only get one lap on red tyres here, and we found a gap at the right time," Power commented. "I'd say the improvement over last year's time was down to both the red tyres and the DP01 being much quicker than the Lola in the fast sections of the track."

Surprisingly his closest challenger today was Robert Doornbos, the Minardi Team USA driver beating fellow rookies Simon Pagenaud (Team Australia) and Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing) by 0.25 and 0.4 seconds respectively.

On what is known as a very 'technical' track - a euphemism for 'very hard for rookies' - the Dutchman turned in perhaps his most impressive qualifying performance of the season.

Doornbos will of course start third, however, since Sebastien Bourdais' provisional pole earned him a guaranteed front-row start.

The Frenchman struggled today, not with the car but with traffic, as track time was condensed by spins from Katherine Legge (Dale Coyne Racing) at the start and Alex Figge (Pacific Coast Motorsports) at the end.

The four-time champion said: "There was nothing wrong with the car; it was circumstances that beat us today. We never got a gap, we were always too close to someone.

"So as we already had the front row, I preferred to keep my second set of reds fresher for tomorrow. It will be a bit strange starting from the dirty side of the track, but it's a long race."

A late surge from Oriol Servia saw the PKV Racing driver jump to fourth on the grid, ahead of Justin Wilson who felt that as the track 'rubbered in' the minimal changes since yesterday weren't enough to keep him competitive.

Paul Tracy of Forsythe Championship Racing was Team Australia's only challenger for most of the session but got bumped down to eighth in the closing minutes. Mexican teammate David Martinez performed admirably to get within 0.3 seconds of the 2003 champion.

Pos  Driver            Team                           Time
 1.  Will Power        Team Australia                 1:23.558
 2.  S.Bourdais        Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing     1:24.698 + 1.14
 3.  Robert Doornbos   Minardi Team USA               1:24.152 + 0.594
 4.  Oriol Servia      PKV Racing                     1:24.324 + 0.766
 5.  Justin Wilson     RuSPORT                        1:24.365 + 0.807
 6.  Simon Pagenaud    Team Australia                 1:24.394 + 0.836
 7.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing     1:24.515 + 0.957
 8.  Paul Tracy        Forsythe Championship Racing   1:24.608 + 1.050
 9.  Dan Clarke        Minardi Team USA               1:24.764 + 1.206
10.  David Martinez    Forsythe Championship Racing   1:24.888 + 1.330
11.  Neel Jani         PKV Racing                     1:24.929 + 1.371
12.  Bruno Junqueira   Dale Coyne Racing              1:25.361 + 1.803
13.  Nelson Philippe   Conquest Racing                1:25.405 + 1.847
14.  Alex Tagliani     Rocketsports Racing            1:25.446 + 1.888
15.  Mario Dominguez   Pacific Coast Motorsports      1:25.602 + 2.044
16.  Katherine Legge   Dale Coyne Racing              1:26.277 + 2.719
17.  Alex Figge        Pacific Coast Motorsports      1:26.582 + 3.024