Saturday

Helio Castro-Neves drops by the pits for an adjustment during morning practice. Note the "Go Alex" Italian flag on the crane in the background.

09:38 Agfa Futura 100 SS1/350 CF9.5

Bobby Rahal raises his visor as he brings the Miller Lite Reynard-Ford into the pits.

09:42 Agfa Futura 100 SS1/500 CF8.0

Scott Pruett sits in the Visteon car waiting for practice to resume after a red flag.

09:49 Agfa Futura 100 SS1/350 CF5.6

Helio Castro-Neves also waiting while the team make adjustments before sending him back out.

09:53 Agfa Futura 100 SS1/500 CF5.6

With "Finn-Power" in the Hogan Reynard-Mercedes, JJ Lehto looks forward to a fast weekend.

09:54 Agfa Futura 100 SS1/350 CF5.6

Mark Blundell was finding it hard to get a good setup: "We're struggling to find the next level of grip. We make progress in one corner and lose out in another."

09:55 Agfa Futura 100 SS1/125 CF5.6

He just keeps on going. A shot of Alex that the sponsor should be happy with.

09:56 Agfa Futura 100 SS1/180 CF5.6

Patrick Carpentier wasn't having a good weekend: 21st in provisional qualifying the day before and this morning only able to scrape up 17th.

09:56 Agfa Futura 100 SS1/350 CF5.6

Meanwhile his teammate Greg Moore was not faring much better, returning to the pits in only 15th position.

09:59 Agfa Futura 100 SS1/350 CF4.5

Al Unser, Jr., in the high-nosed Penske leads Gil de Ferran back into the pits. Neither had a good session, placing 29th and 19th respectively.

10:02 Konica 200JX SS1/350 CF5.6

Al looks out of the cockpit wondering what his team can adjust to get him up to speed.

10:03 Konica 200JX SS1/500 CF5.6

Christian Fittipaldi returns his Swift-Ford to the pits after clocking the fastest lap of the session. Unfortunately he wasn't able to repeat this performance in the afternoon qualifying.

10:03 Konica 200JX SS1/500 CF5.6

Andre Ribeiro praying he can find more speed, but can only manage 20th in both practice and qualifying.

10:05 Konica 200JX SS1/750 CF5.6

Dario looking cool and evidently feeling confident despite being only ninth fastest in practice: "This morning, we were working on the race set-up so we weren't too concerned about speed."

10:13 Konica 200JX SS1/750 CF5.6

Paul looking hot, but probably happy with the car being third fastest in practice. He went on to place seventh in the afternoon: "It was a great qualifying session for us. [...] It's a decent starting position and it's a long race with a lot of walls and a lot of places to make mistakes. If we drive a clean race, we can be on the podium."

10:17 Konica 200JX SS1/350 CF5.6

Greg climbs up to the booth to check out the performance figures. He must have been feeling frustrated with only being able to place 15th in the session.

10:19 Konica 200JX SS1/2000 CF5.6

Drivers Sticking their Tongues Out - Number 2: Alex Zanardi. He placed second in the session and was feeling confident for qualifying well in the afternoon. On the left is Morris Nunn, his chief engineer.

10:21 Konica 200JX SS1/1000 CF4.5

Jimmy Vasser climbs onto his Honda motorbike to head back to the paddock. He is not doing as well as his teammate Alex, only achieving 21st in practice.

10:24 Konica 200JX SS1/500 CF4.0

"Mad" Max Papis still struggling with the Reynard-Toyota is looking forward to his drive at Team Rahal next year.

10:27 Konica 200JX SS1/1500 CF4.0

Mauricio Gugelmin looking happy despite a poorly handling car: "We had a lot of understeer. Push, push, push. It's not easy to drive a car like that, especially with so many walls around. Apart from that, the car ran great. "

10:28 Konica 200JX SS1/500 CF4.0

We manage to engage Mark Blundell in a conversation and get him to autograph my race ticket. "I'm from Hertfordshire meself," I say. "I've had offers to return to Formula One, but I'll still be with PacWest next year. The politics are much easier here; you don't have to carry an Uzi!"

10:31 Konica 200JX SS1/1500 CF4.0

"Och, I've gotta goo 'n get me some lunch afore qualifying," says Dario. They must serve a mean haggis in the Team Kool Green camp, because it helped him take pole in the afternoon.

10:55 Konica 200JX SS1/1000 CF4.0

Pete and I return from our own lunch at the Yaletown Brewing Company to find Bob Varsha, Danny Sullivan and Tom Kendall introducing the qualifying coverage on ESPN-2.

12:52 Konica 200JX SS1/750 CF9.5

Patrick Carpentier locks up his left front wheel at the chicane during qualifying.

13:01 Konica 200JX SS1/1500 CF5.6

Alex was beaten to third place by Dario and Bryan in the qualifying session. "I was real confident this afternoon," he said. "We made the car a little better this morning and then we went out and ran into traffic. I thought it would be all right, that traffic wouldn't be a problem this afternoon, but I was wrong."

14:49 Konica 200JX SS1/500 CF5.6

After another stop at the Yaletown, it was time to head home for us. I couldn't resist a shot of the full moon to finish the day.

19:58 Konica 200JX SS1/15 CF5.6