Bourdais continues to dominate

The Frenchman, who has already guaranteed himself a front-row grid slot by leading Friday qualifying, set a time of 1:07.290, at an average speed of 105.288mph.

The Newman/Haas pilot was 0.234 quicker than RuSPORT's AJ Allmendinger, although the American set his fast time on old tyres.

His British teammate Justin Wilson was fifth, after a set-up change that didn't suit his style meant he spent a lot of wasted time in the pits.

Paul Tracy was third quickest for Forsythe Championship Racing, while Bruno Junqueira was fourth.

Cristiano da Matta carried on his strong progress with Dale Coyne Racing by clocking sixth fastest time, again ahead of all three cars from PKV Racing, his former employers.

Oriol Servia, Jimmy Vasser and Katherine Legge were ninth, 11th and 16th respectively for the squad co-owned by Vasser.

Legge's morning session was punctuated by two spins, and she thus missed out when the track was at its quickest. Nonetheless, the rookie's quickest lap was within a second of her two experienced teammates.

Team Australia's strong form continued, with Alex Tagliani and Will Power seventh and eighth quickest respectively.

Rookie Dan Clarke was 15th for CTE Racing-HVM, one place behind ex-Formula One driver Antonio Pizzonia whose track time was restricted by the repairs necessary after he wiped off his rear wing in a spin into a tyre wall.

Pos  Driver              Team               Time              Laps
 1.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman Haas        1:07.290           28
 2.  A.J. Allmendinger   RuSPORT            1:07.524 + 0.234   23
 3.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe           1:07.700 + 0.410   28
 4.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman Haas        1:07.799 + 0.509   23
 5.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT            1:07.905 + 0.615   29
 6.  Cristiano da Matta  Dale Coyne         1:08.173 + 0.883   31
 7.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia     1:08.187 + 0.897   30
 8.  Will Power          Team Australia     1:08.417 + 1.127   28
 9.  Oriol Servia        PKV                1:08.643 + 1.353   26
10.  Mario Dominguez     Forsythe           1:08.683 + 1.393   28
11.  Jimmy Vasser        PKV                1:08.844 + 1.554   27
12.  Nelson Philippe     CTE  HVM           1:08.923 + 1.633   30
13.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne         1:09.050 + 1.760   31
14.  Antonio Pizzonia    Rocketsports       1:09.237 + 1.947   25
15.  Dan Clarke          CTE  HVM           1:09.453 + 2.163   26
16.  Katherine Legge     PKV                1:09.514 + 2.224   24
17.  Andrew Ranger       Mi-Jack Conquest   1:10.155 + 2.865   27
18.  Charles Zwolsman    Mi-Jack Conquest   1:10.969 + 3.679   10