Practice

Richie Hearn descends from the Corkscrew as we approach the track on Saturday morning at the start of practice.

09:33 Konica 200JX SS1/700 CF8.0

New father Alex Zanardi sets up the number 1 car after being banned from the Friday qualifying session due to an incident with Bryan Herta in the Corkscrew during that morning's practice.

09:47 Konica 200JX SS1/1000 CF5.6

Tony Kanaan in the Tasman Reynard-Honda struggled to find a good setup.

09:47 Konica 200JX SS1/1000 CF5.6

Whereas Greg Moore was on the pace in his Forsythe Reynard-Mercedes, running fifth fastest in the session.

09:54 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/1500 CF5.6

Scott Pruett was running well too, clocking up third fastest in practice.

09:55 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/1000 CF5.6

This is Michael Andretti dropping out of the Corkscrew. His setup wasn't coming together.

09:56 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/1000 CF5.6

Robby Gordon in the Arciero-Wells Reynard-Toyota that he will be vacating next year. Rumours still abound that he will start his own team running Swift chassis and Toyota engines.

09:56 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/1500 CF4.5

Arnd Meier had a good setup when he tested at Laguna two weeks earlier, but just couldn't seem to find one for the field's only Lola this weekend.

10:00 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/2000 CF5.6

Dario Franchitti was fastest for provisional qualifying on Friday, but must have either lost it or been concentrating on setup experiments this morning, leaving him 15th fastest.

10:00 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/1500 CF4.5

Gil de Ferran twists through the Corkscrew in his Reynard-Honda, the only one on Goodyear tyres - do they put him at a disadvantage compared to his Firestone-shod colleagues?

10:01 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/2000 CF5.6

Jimmy Vasser was performing pretty well, but still wasn't 100% happy with his setup. "We made some changes, but I still don't have the car where I want it. I don't know if anyone does."

10:03 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/1500 CF5.6

When PJ Jones announced he will be moving to Patrick Racing next year, the All American Racers team replaced him with Italian driver Vincenzo Sospiri, seen here practicing in their old Reynard car, for the remainder of this season.

10:04 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/2000 CF5.6

Another shot of Michael in his Swift-Ford with Goodyear f***ing tyres.

10:04 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/1500 CF5.6

Alex Zanardi finally announced his departure from Champ cars to Formula One for next season, joining the Williams team.

10:05 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/1500 CF5.6

Mauricio Gugelmin finally seemed to be getting some performance out of his PacWest Reynard-Mercedes, being twelfth fastest in practice and eighth in qualifying. However the car let him down again in the race with a cooling system failure.

10:09 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/700 CF9.5

A nice shot of Scott Pruett at speed.

10:10 Kodak Advantix 200 SS1/700 CF9.5

Just like his PacWest teammate, Mark Blundell seemed to be making good progress with his car, only to be let down (throttle problem) during the early stages of the race.

10:14 Fujicolor A200

With the session over, the remaining cars on track return to the pits.

10:15 Fujicolor A200

Qualifying

Patrick Carpentier, air jacks up, waits in his car in the pits for the qualifying session to resume after the first red flag break due to an accident.

12:53 Fujicolor A200

In the next pit, Dennis Vitolo waits also with his air jacks up. Once again no one was surprised when he qualified dead last. He doesn't even drive a Toyota!

12:55 Fujicolor A200

Vincenzo Sospiri got to drive the new Eagle chassis for qualifying. The new boy still came next to last.

13:07 Konica 200JX SS1/1500 CF5.6

Alex Zanardi emerges from the pit lane. Missing the Friday qualifying session left him at the disadvantage of being in the first, slower group of cars. Still, he put on a good show, enough to place fifth behind Bryan Herta's pole.

13:07 Konica 200JX SS1/700 CF5.6