Bourdais Keeps His Powder Dry

Whereas most of the leading contenders bolted on a set of softer, 'alternate' tyres for their second runs, Bourdais stuck with the harder primary compound throughout, saving an extra set of 'reds' for tomorrow's grid-deciding session and Sunday's race.

Even so he wound up only 0.14s shy of the pole time, and with back-to-back wins under his belt at the fast, bumpy Cleveland airfield track, has every reason to feel confident.

"We were really, really close but one-tenth of a second difference puts you P4 - that's how competitive this series is now," noted Bourdais.

"We stuck to our plan and only ran the standard tyres so maybe there is more on the table for tomorrow. [Provisional polesitter Cristiano] da Matta and [Paul] Tracy used the alternate tyres so maybe we can gain some time there.

"On my fastest lap I made a small mistake in Turn Eight and then on the next lap I made a mistake in the chicane. The McDonald's car was really, really close but everybody just stepped up."

Oriol Servia claimed seventh on the overnight grid in the sister Newman/Haas Lola, but admitted he had hoped for more.

"We changed the PacifiCare car a little bit for the second run but I wasn't able to put a lap together," related the Spaniard, who finished a splendid fourth here last year for Dale Coyne Racing.

"The car feels good but we are still farther off than I would like to be. But I'm confident we can get it together tomorrow and move closer to the front."