Doornbos hoping to 'rain' supreme.

Although he was prevented from challenging for outright pole position, Robert Doornbos was nonetheless delighted to have emerged as the fastest driver in the wet during final qualifying at Portland.

With the rain ending any drivers hopes of dislodging provisional pole sitter Justin Wilson from the top spot, the battle was on to see who had the advantage in the wet, not least because forecasters are predicting similar conditions for Sunday's race.

For Doornbos though, he admits his roots of racing in Europe arguably helped him establish an advantage over his rivals. Even so, the Dutchman, who will start the race from second position, insists he is settling into his Minardi Team USA car well, come rain or shine.

"It felt like home actually, in Holland," he said. "It was really wet, and I was pleasantly surprised. I think I can say the Bridgestone tyres were extremely good for me the first two laps. It was also part our strategy basically being that first thing in the morning it was wet. We felt that the grip of the tyre was there for two laps and then it decreased, so we decided to save all the tyres for qualifying. It worked out well because I felt quite comfortable.

However, Doornbos does admit that he had a scare during the qualifying session when he almost collided with another slower driver, the former Minardi and Red Bull F1 driver pointing out how much of a difference there is between some drivers in the rain.

"The difference between the drivers is quite big. I almost hit a guy -- I pushed a guy over the timing line really because he was driving so slow in the chicane. So it was not the best lap, but good enough and a great motivation boost for the team and for myself for tomorrow."