Bourdais back on top

The Newman/Haas driver, who yesterday was beaten by RuSPORT drivers AJ Allmendinger and Justin Wilson in free practice, and then beaten to quickest time in first qualifying by Wilson, set a 1:14.097 lap this moning on the harder, standard tyres that put him almost 0.3 seconds clear of the opposition.

Closest to him were Allmendinger and Wilson, while Bourdais's teammate Bruno Junqueira was some 0.9 seconds adrift in fourth, less than a hundredth ahead of Paul Tracy of Forsythe Championship Racing.

The session was interrupted 10 minutes from the end by a crash for Alex Tagliani, who at that stage lay sixth in the timesheets. When the green flags flew, so did Oriol Servia, however, to jump ahead of the Team Australia driver.

Servia, who admitted yesterday that he and PKV Racing had gone in the wrong direction in terms of set-up for first qualifying, reckoned that he could get into the top five, and his lap this morning would suggest he can indeed perform strongly this afternoon.

Servia's positive note was further endorsed by teammate Katherine Legge who, having had an engine change overnight has once again gone top of the rookies with a hot lap 0.8 seconds shy of Servia, to finish the session 12th.

The Mexican crowd favourite and Houston pole-sitter Mario Dominguez is still not happy with his set-up and finished seventh, some half a second shy of teammate Tracy.

By contrast, Cristiano da Matta has maintained his momentum from yesterday and ended the session ninth in his Dale Coyne Racing entry.

Conquest Racing's Andrew Ranger, who became the youngest podium finisher in Champ Car history when he finished second at this Fundidora Park venue last year is also performing near- faultlessly, and was tenth quickest. He currently lies an impressive fourth in the championship table after two rounds.

Pos  Driver              Team              Time              Laps
 1.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman Haas       1:14.097           24
 2.  A.J. Allmendinger   RuSPORT           1:14.388 + 0.291   21
 3.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT           1:14.522 + 0.425   25
 4.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman Haas       1:14.988 + 0.891   20
 5.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe          1:14.995 + 0.898   25
 6.  Oriol Servia        PKV               1:15.209 + 1.112   24
 7.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia    1:15.325 + 1.228   21
 8.  Mario Dominguez     Forsythe          1:15.477 + 1.380   25
 9.  Cristiano da Matta  Dale Coyne        1:15.631 + 1.534   25
10.  Andrew Ranger       Mi-Jack Conquest  1:15.713 + 1.616   23
11.  Nelson Philippe     CTE HVM           1:15.765 + 1.668   23
12.  Katherine Legge     PKV               1:16.022 + 1.925   25
13.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne        1:16.351 + 2.254   21
14.  Will Power          Team Australia    1:16.421 + 2.324   22
15.  Dan Clarke          CTE HVM           1:16.791 + 2.694   24
16.  Charles Zwolsman    Mi-Jack Conquest  1:18.717 + 4.620    4
17.  Nicky Pastorelli    Rocketsports      1:19.065 + 4.968    3