Bourdais on provisional Edmonton pole

The reigning champion had set a lap of 58.709 seconds around the 1.973-mile airport course when Gommendy, who had spun off the track at Turn 7 some 15 minutes earlier, radioed in that he needed an ambulance due to back pains.

The only access to Turn 7 is via the track, so the session was stopped to allow the ambulance to reach the stranded PKV Racing driver.

Gommendy has been taken to a hospital for precautionary X-rays on his lower back.

Behind Bourdais was his other compatriot in the field, Simon Pagenaud, who found the changes Team Australia had made to his DP01 Cosworth since this morning practice had given him a near-perfect set-up.

It was enough to put him ahead of his rival for the Atlantic championship last year, Graham Rahal, who took his Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing machine around the track just 0.4 seconds slower than teammate Bourdais.

Bruno Junqueira continued his excellent form from Toronto and this morning here in Edmonton, clocking fourth fastest time, just 0.015 seconds off Rahal, but championship leader Robert Doornbos was only 10th fastest and had only five laps under his belt by the time the red flag flew.

That was better than Minardi Team USA partner Dan Clarke, who never even reached the track as his car was still being repaired from his sizeable accident this morning.

Paul Tracy was another cursing his luck when a wiring harness burnt out on his Forsythe Championship Racing entry, bringing it to a halt with just four laps completed.

Pos  Driver             Team                        Time
 1.  Sebastian Bourdais Newman/Haas/Lanigan         58.709
 2.  Simon Pagenaud     Team Australia              58.974 + 0.265
 3.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan         59.112 + 0.403
 4.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne                  59.127 + 0.418
 5.  Will Power         Team Australia              59.155 + 0.446
 6.  Justin Wilson      RSPORTS                     59.174 + 0.465
 7.  Neel Jani          PKV                         59.465 + 0.756
 8.  Alex Tagliani      RSPORTS                     59.483 + 0.774
 9.  Oriol Servia       Forsythe Championship       59.582 + 0.873
10.  Robert Doornbos    Minardi Team USA            59.941 + 1.232
11.  Katherine Legge    Dale Coyne                  60.222 + 1.513
12.  Jan Heylen         Conquest                    60.470 + 1.761
13.  Alex Figge         Pacific Coast Motorsports   60.937 + 2.228
14.  Ryan Dalziel       Pacific Coast Motorsports   61.055 + 2.346
15.  Paul Tracy         Forsythe Championship       61.840 + 3.131
16.  Tristan Gommendy   PKV                         No time
17.  Dan Clarke         Minardi Team USA            No time