Wilson takes third spot in Mexico.

Justin Wilson and Nelson Philippe experienced mixed fortunes in final qualifying for the Gran Premio Telmex-Tecate in Mexico City, as Wilson scored third on the grid, but Philippe was unable to qualify and improve his time from Friday when he overheated the clutch in his Mi-Jack Conquest Lola after a spin in the pre-qualifying practice session.

Wilson netted fourth on the provisional grid on Friday, and his Saturday fast lap time of 1min 27.016secs around the 2.786-mile circuit allowed him to go one better and take the inside spot on the second row alongside series veteran Jimmy Vasser.

"I'm pretty happy," Wilson said. "We've been making progress all weekend, then in the warm-up session before qualifying, we were a long way off, and getting a bit concerned that we changed the setup only very slightly, but lost our way. Fortunately, we changed it back and the car worked well again and we were able to go out and set a time. I am very pleased, and the Mi-Jack Conquest team has done a fantastic job all weekend. We just keep playing it nice and cool and are taking small steps at a time."

Philippe, who had been making positive steps all weekend, posting the ninth quickest time in the morning practice session, will start the race from the nineteenth position. While he was disappointed not to get the chance to improve, he is still confident looking towards the sixty-three lap event.

"It was unfortunate what happened, because we have improved our speed every session so far this weekend, and were looking for a competitive effort in the final qualifying," the Frenchman said. "The Mi-Jack Conquest team has done a great job this weekend, and I think that Justin's qualifying effort shows that. We know we have a good car, and we know we can pass, so we will focus on improving our position during the race, and hopefully we can get another top-ten finish to close out the season."

Team owner Eric Bachelart shared Philippe's disappointment that the session did not go better for the young rising star, but knows that he will continue to learn and improve and that he should have a competitive race on Sunday.

"It was a shame that Nelson had his spin and couldn't qualify this afternoon, as he had a good practice session this morning and we were confident about his chances for a top-ten in qualifying," he said. "But he showed in Australia that he can pass competitors, and he has plenty of fresh tyres for the race, so he has the opportunity to do well."

"Justin had a very good qualifying effort today. He was able to get the absolute maximum out of the car we gave him, so we are proud of his effort, and hopefully we can get a strong result with both drivers on Sunday."