four cars would go through to the main qualifying sessions. Jordan had signed veteran Italian driver Andrea de Cesaris, plus last season's Coloni driver Bertrand Gachot, who had much experience in pre-qualifying sessions. Their car was the all-new 191 powered by a Cosworth V8 engine. Modena's drivers were Italian Nicola Larini, another driver well used to pre-qualifying, and Belgian debutant Eric van de Poele. They would be driving the Lamborghini V12-engined Lambo 291, so named for the team's strong Lamborghini connections. Fondmetal had retained the French Osella driver Olivier Grouillard, and were starting the season with the Cosworth V8-powered Fondmetal FA1M-E, effectively last year's Osella, which itself was an update of their 1989 car. Coloni had brought the C4, a modified version of the C3 used in 1989 and 1990, which also had a Cosworth V8 engine. Their driver was the 1990 British Formula 3000 champion Pedro Chaves, from Portugal. Scuderia Italia were campaigning a Dallara chassis as usual, the all-new F191, powered by Judd V10 engines. The team retained Italian Emanuele Pirro, and hired Finnish driver JJ Lehto, who had driven for Onyx in 1990. In pre-qualifying in Phoenix, the Dallaras were easily the fastest cars in the session, with Pirro half a second faster than Lehto. Nearly two seconds slower in third was Larini in the Modena Lambo, and the fourth pre-qualifier was Gachot in the Jordan. Missing out in fifth place was de Cesaris in the other Jordan, who made a gear selection error on a faster lap, just ahead of Chaves, who crashed the Coloni during the session. Grouillard was seventh in the Fondmetal, complaining of a lack of grip, but bottom of the time sheets, nearly five seconds adrift of Grouillard, was van de Poele in the other Lambo. The Belgian had encountered a protester on the track during one run, after which his engine failed. Pre-qualifying classification Qualifying report Prior to arriving in Phoenix, the 1991 McLaren chassis had had only had one brief test session, and the two race cars were completed about 4 am Friday, six hours before the first practice session. Working to prepare the new car, Ayrton Senna claimed he had never gotten totally comfortable with the increasing complexity of the sport since helping Lotus introduce the first active suspension car in 1987, and he still found it hard to embrace the huge role of computers in achieving a proper