Bourdais tops Montreal practice

The Newman/Haas Racing driver ended the session top with a lap of 1:22.448, an average of 118.285mph of the 2.709-mile course, despite a wild moment on his final lap. His best lap was the eighth of his 15, where he was quickest in two of the three segments.

Allmendinger was just 0.11 seconds behind, but his Forsythe Championship Racing teammate Paul Tracy was only seventh after a spin in Turn 1, much to the delight of the Quebec crowd.

Tracy's comments in his autosport.com column on French drivers and ice hockey players have not gone down well here in this French-speaking state - despite him completing a whole lap in this morning's session waving to the crowd.

Last year's Montreal race-winner Oriol Servia is showing well once again, with third fastest time for PKV Racing, albeit almost 0.7 seconds off his 2005 teammate Bourdais. Justin Wilson has put his RuSPORT car fourth.

Despite some scruffy early laps, CTE Racing-HVM's Nelson Philippe has taken sixth, just behind second Newman/Haas racer Bruno Junqueira. Home race heroes Andrew Ranger (Conquest Racing) and Alex Tagliani (Team Australia) are ninth and 10th.

Pos  Driver        Team                           Time             
 1.  Bourdais      Newman/Haas Racing             1:22.448
 2.  Allmendinger  Forsythe Championship Racing   1:22.558 + 0.110
 3.  Servia        PKV Racing                     1:23.141 + 0.693
 4.  Wilson        RuSPORT                        1:23.149 + 0.701
 5.  Junqueira     Newman/Haas Racing             1:23.257 + 0.809
 6.  Philippe      CTE Racing - HVM               1:23.366 + 0.918
 7.  Tracy         Forsythe Championship Racing   1:23.426 + 0.978
 8.  Power         Team Australia                 1:23.562 + 1.114
 9.  Ranger        Mi-Jack Conquest Racing        1:23.938 + 1.490
10.  Tagliani      Team Australia                 1:23.941 + 1.493
11.  Zwolsman      Mi-Jack Conquest Racing        1:24.008 + 1.560
12.  Dominguez     Dale Coyne Racing              1:24.178 + 1.730
13.  Heylen        Dale Coyne Racing              1:24.311 + 1.863
14.  Pastorelli    Rocketsports Racing            1:24.573 + 2.125
15.  Legge         PKV Racing                     1:24.978 + 2.530
16.  Pizzonia      Rocketsports Racing            1:25.058 + 2.610
17.  Clarke        CTE Racing - HVM               1:25.114 + 2.666