Pole sitter Dominguez full of Mexican pride.

The sponsor on his Forsythe Racing Lola translates as the 'Pride of Mexico' and Mario Dominguez was certainly living up to his billing after securing his maiden pole position for the Houston Grand Prix.

Although his career has yielded two victories and nine podium finishes, Dominguez is yet to have started a race from pole position but took his debut top spot in style with a new lap record around the Texan street circuit.

Indeed, Dominguez was thrilled with the result. "This is a great day for me," he exclaimed. "It's great to be able to win a Bridgestone pole for my country. I think today we proved why this team is the Pride of Mexico. Forsythe has done a very good job over the winter. Over this weekend, we've worked very well together.

"I think the whole team deserves this Bridgestone Pole, and so do I. I've been waiting for this for many years. I'm very happy, very excited about the pole position. I am just very proud to be racing for Forsythe. I'd like to thank everybody on the team."

Team mate Paul Tracy meanwhile shadowed Dominguez to the second fastest time but had to settle for third due to Bruno Junqueira's provisional pole position guaranteeing him a place on the front row.

"I've been trying to figure out what's making the car so quick for Mario and maybe not so much for me. We made a lot of changes throughout the day today, made some more big changes right before qualifying after the warm-up. I think it was a couple tenths behind him. We're satisfied.

"Obviously, it's changed the balance of how things look from yesterday. It looked like it was going to be a walk-away with Newman/Haas. We've worked very hard, and it's a different day today."