De Ferran on a roll at Mid Ohio.

As in Formula One qualifying, the last two minutes of the final timed session is a frantic period in the CART Fed-Ex Championship with all drivers trying to improve their time in the dying seconds. The situation was the same on Saturday in Mid Ohio as the field made a last gasp attempt to displace the dominant Team Penske pair.

However De Ferran made sure that his time of 1 minute 05.347 seconds would not be bettered, albeit inadvertently. As the Reynard-Honda driver went into what he believed was going to be his final flying lap, a problem at the back of the car caused De Ferran to lose control and spin onto the grass at Turn One. The Marlboro sponsored car spun wildly and made contact with the tyres, finishing upside down with its driver still strapped in.

"The impact with the tyres was quite soft," said Gil who suffered no injuries from the crash. "I was surprised, when I finally opened my eyes I was upside-down. I just started talking to the team and the guys, telling them I was OK."

The session was stopped and several drivers found their final flying laps declared null and void. Not least Dario Franchitti who was on course to displace Helio Castroneves from the outside of the front row when the red flag came out.

The Team KOOL Green driver had already trimmed some three tenths off his Friday time to close on the Penske's and his final flyer was good enough to oust Castroneves from second. However the CART organisers said that the red flag was already out when Franchitti crossed the line and the Scottish driver had to settle for third place.

"The first red flag to me was in Turn One," said a highly disappointed Franchitti. "As far as I was concerned the time should have counted." A later examination of videotapes and timing screens showed that Franchitti was about two seconds away from having his time allowed.

The fact that neither Penske driver improved upon their time was largely down to the fact that the 2.2 mile Lexington circuit was bathed in hot sunshine for much of Saturday, both saying the track was much slicker than on Friday. However Penske drivers aside. all but Adrian Fernandez, Oriol Servia and Michel Jourdain Jr managed to improve their Friday time.

Kenny Brack vaulted past Christian Fittipaldi to take fourth place after cutting half a second off his Friday mark. Fittipaldi remained in the top five and has consistently been the fastest Lola driver all weekend despite dropping a position overnight.

Max Papis moved up from eleventh to sixth in the second of the Team Rahal Reynard-Fords at the 'home' track of team-owner Bobby Rahal. The Italian chopped a full second off his Friday time as he attempted to get on terms with team-mat Brack. Papis will be looking for a change in luck after two heartbreaking retirements in the past two races as he tries to salvage something from what promised to be a successful season.

Cristiano Da Matta cemented his place in the top ten with seventh quickest time, moving ahead of Juan Montoya in the process. Da Matta was the fastest Toyota powered runner as Honda and Ford monopolised the top three rows of the grid.

Points leader Michael Andretti moved up one spot to eighth place but was still unable to get the best from his Lola-Ford package. Andretti's strangely subdued performance increased speculation that he may be switching to the rival Indy Racing Northern Light Series next year to rekindle his old rivalry with Al Unser Jr.

Rounding out the top ten were Patrick Carpentier and a frustrated Montoya who suffered with traffic and a lack of grip more than most. The Colombian driver was only able to knock one tenth of a second off his Friday time but was surprisingly upbeat about his chances on race-day despite having his worst qualifying session of the year so far.

"The car feels pretty good," said the defending Miller Lite 200 Champion. "I've been pushing the car and taking it to the limit, I have had good results at this track and tomorrow will hopefully be the same."

Montoya's Target/Chip Ganassi team-mate Jimmy Vasser was a respectable eleventh just two hundredths of a second slower than the Colombian with Fernandez down in twelfth after a catalogue of disasters befell the Patrick Team. Roberto Moreno in the sister Reynard-Ford was able to make his way up to 15th place from 22nd overnight but he still has a lot of work to do come Sunday afternoon.