Day 3: Bourdais back on top

The Frenchman also topped the timesheets on the first day of testing at the circuit, and set the fastest overall time of the event. Bourdais' Newman/Haas team-mate, Bruno Junqueira, set the second fastest time to firmly establish the team's dominance of the test. Only Patrick Racing driver Oriol Servia was able to break the team's lock on Spring Training, having set the fastest time on day two.

"We learned a few things from the test and it was good to see how we compared to all of the other teams," said Bourdais. "The car was really good and consistent on full tanks and old tyres. It was amazing. Near the end of my session, the track was getting faster and faster. The track was almost black with rubber in the last session."

Junqueira spent most of the morning session completing long runs, but found his afternoon running curtailed by a blown clutch. He was not overly concerned by the setback. "Overall, the test was very good," he said. "To have a small problem end our test is disappointing. But it is good to have these problems during tests rather than in a race. We were able to get a good balance on the car with full tanks and old tyres in the morning session."

Team Rahal driver Michel Jourdain Jr set the third fastest time of the day , beating his previous best test time by over half a second. Patrick Carpentier was fourth fastest, with his former Forsythe team-mate Alex Tagliani fifth for Rocketsports.

Briton Darren Manning set the sixth fastest time, and was the fastest of the driver's running Reynard chassis.

Sebastien Bourdais Newman/Haas 50.584s
Bruno Junqueira Newman/Haas 50.804s
Michel Jourdain Jr Team Rahal 50.841s
Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Racing 51.141s
Alex Tagliani Rocketsports 51.142s
Darren Manning Walker Racing 51.204s
Mario Dominguez Herdez Competition 51.244s
Jimmy Vasser American Spirit Team Johansson 51.336s
Roberto Moreno Herdez Competition 51.465s
Ryan Hunter-Reay American Spirit Team Johansson 51.495s
Adrian Fernandez Fernandez Racing 51.606s
Mario Haberfeld Conquest 51.644s
Paul Tracy Forsythe Racing 51.741s
Joel Camathias Dale Coyne Racing 51.830s
Patrick Lemarie PK Racing 52.338s
Rodolfo Lavin Walker Racing 52.388s
Roberto Gonzalez Dale Coyne Racing 52.992s