Bourdais stuns in final practice

The Frenchman's average speed was 104.732mph, and for much of the 75 minute session the Newman/Haas Racing driver was over 0.4 seconds clear of his nearest rival.

However, a do-or-die effort from local hero AJ Allmendinger saw him get within 0.13 seconds of the reigning champion, to give Forsythe Championship Racing great hope for a 1-2 on tomorrow's grid. Paul Tracy has already secured a front-row slot after finishing top yesterday.

Cristiano da Matta did a brilliant job to jump to third for RuSPORT, far and away the Brazilian's strongest performance since joining the Colorado-based squad four rounds ago. Team-mate Justin Wilson, by contrast, was down in 11th, just behind Tracy.

Nelson Philippe did a fine job for CTE Racing-HVM as usual to fourth quickest, and team-mate Dan Clarke, who was fourth quickest yesterday looked set to join him in the top six but ended the session early with a head-on into the tyre barriers at the final turn.

With the top 15 of the session covered by little more than a second, it's a fraught battle in the midfield, and Mario Dominguez was mighty in his Dale Coyne Racing car to wind up sixth.

Katherine Legge also showed well to get within 0.05 seconds of PKV Racing team-mate Oriol Servia, but each had problems. Legge over-revved her engine, while Servia clipped a wall and punctured his left-rear tyre.

Practice times:

Pos  Driver            Team                            Time
 1.  S. Bourdais       Newman/Haas Racing            49.601
 2.  A. Allmendinger   Forsythe Championship Racing  49.730  + 0.129
 3.  C. da Matta       RuSPORT                       50.083  + 0.482
 4.  N. Philippe       CTE Racing - HVM              50.195  + 0.594
 5.  O. Servia         PKV Racing                    50.237  + 0.636
 6.  M. Dominguez      Dale Coyne Racing             50.240  + 0.639
 7.  D. Clarke         CTE Racing - HVM              50.258  + 0.657
 8.  A. Ranger         Mi-Jack Conquest Racing       50.270  + 0.669
 9.  K. Legge          PKV Racing                    50.289  + 0.688
10.  P. Tracy          Forsythe Championship Racing  50.307  + 0.706
11.  J. Wilson         RuSPORT                       50.309  + 0.708
12.  A. Tagliani       Team Australia                50.313  + 0.712
13.  C. Zwolsman       Mi-Jack Conquest Racing       50.352  + 0.751
14.  B. Junqueira      Newman/Haas Racing            50.457  + 0.856
15.  W. Power          Team Australia                50.652  + 1.051
16.  J. Heylen         Dale Coyne Racing             51.286  + 1.685
17.  N. Pastorelli     Rocketsports Racing           52.118  + 2.517