Bourdais fastest in first qualifying

Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing's Frenchman produced a lap of 58.783 seconds around the 1.755-mile course, setting an average speed of 107.480mph.

Despite Forsythe Championship Racing strapping on a set of red (soft-compound) tyres on Servia's car in order to nab provisional pole, Bourdais' last-gasp effort meant the reigning champion prevailed by 0.018 seconds.

Wilson discussed employing similar tactics with his RSPORTS team, but decided that since tomorrow's qualifying session is set to be quicker, he would rather have two sets of soft tyres to run in the deciding session.

However, the Briton said there is plenty more to come, and having won this Toronto race in 2005 and taken pole position last year, he is confident that he could push Bourdais off the top spot.

Servia's teammate Paul Tracy stayed on black tyres and was unhappy with his brakes, but both Forsythe drivers claimed the balance of the car was good, and were optimistic of qualifying on the front three rows.

The session was disrupted twice by red flags: once when Tristan Gommendy of PKV Racing spun and stalled, and the second when a wiring loom shorted in Will Power's car, causing the Team Australia machine to coast to a halt.

The Australian thus lost his fastest time. He also raised the anger of Bruno Junqueira, who crashed into the tyre wall in the in the session's final minute. The Dale Coyne Racing driver was pipped to ninth spot on the provisional grid by teammate Katherine Legge.

Minardi USA continued their momentum from Mont-Tremblant, having won there last weekend, aiding both their drivers to appear in the top five, while Ryan Dalziel continued his recent efforts for Pacific Coast Motorsports with a time just 1.1 seconds off pole.

Pos  Driver              Team                         Time
 1.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas/Lanigan          58.783
 2.  Oriol Servia        Forsythe Championship        58.801 + 0.018
 3.  Justin Wilson       RSPORTS                      59.099 + 0.316
 4.  Robert Doornbos     Minardi Team USA             59.132 + 0.349
 5.  Dan Clarke          Minardi Team USA             59.288 + 0.505
 6.  Simon Pagenaud      Team Australia               59.341 + 0.558
 7.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe Championship        59.368 + 0.585
 8.  Graham Rahal        Newman/Haas/Lanigan          59.456 + 0.673
 9.  Katherine Legge     Dale Coyne                   59.520 + 0.737
10.  Bruno Junqueira     Dale Coyne                   59.547 + 0.764
11.  Tristan Gommendy    PKV                          59.624 + 0.841
12.  Alex Tagliani       RSPORTS                      59.737 + 0.954
13.  Jan Heylen          Conquest                     59.813 + 1.030
14.  Ryan Dalziel        Pacific Coast Motorsports    59.880 + 1.097
15.  Neel Jani           PKV                          60.123 + 1.340
16.  Alex Figge          Pacific Coast Motorsports    60.880 + 2.097
17.  Will Power          Team Australia               61.040 + 2.257