Katherine Legge was left ruing an error in second qualifying as her efforts to move off the back of the grid at the Champ Car finale were dented by a spin.

Although the Briton finally found a decent set-up for the #11 Dale Coyne Racing entry in time for the qualifying session, the off-course moment brought out the red flags and cost her her fastest time from the session. As a result, instead of moving up the order, Legge will start 16th for Sunday's season finale.

“I thought everything went relatively well in qualifying compared to the rest of the weekend,” she said, “We had some issues with the set-up of the car that I think we have overcome, so it was unfortunate that the red flag cost us our fastest lap. If I'd been able to keep that time, I would be starting right next to Bruno, which is a goal of mine for every race.”

Veteran team-mate Bruno Junqueira, chasing a fourth-straight podium for the Coyne team, also struggled to nail the right set-up for the tricky Mexico City track, and will have to pass nine other cars if he is to return to the top three. The Brazilian is involved in a five-way battle for fifth in the standings with only Sunday's race remaining, and needs a strong finish with Graham Rahal, Neel Jani, Simon Pagenaud and Oriol Servia all finishing behind him as just eight points separate fifth from ninth in the table.

“The set-up hasn't been good all weekend,” a frustrated Junqueira admitted, “Every time we tried to change something, the car seemed to miss the target. Now we just have to get a good set-up for the race tomorrow and, hopefully, we can do well in the race as the points are very close.”