Bourdais takes Long Beach pole

Through morning practice, the Frenchman had appeared to turn the tables on Power's supreme pace from Friday, and the Newman/Haas/Lanigan driver confirmed that by beating the Australian by 0.15 seconds

It was his second pole at Long Beach and his team's tenth at the circuit regarded as the jewel in Champ Car's crown.

His rookie teammate Graham Rahal also improved enormously on his performance from Las Vegas, as he placed his car in fifth position with a time 0.624 seconds adrift of his team leader.

However, the American will still start behind the man who beat him to the 2006 Champ Car Atlantic crown, as Simon Pagenaud will start third in the second Team Australia car.

Alongside him on the grid will be Alex Tagliani, who for the second consecutive race placed his RSPORTS car fourth fastest, again ahead of teammate Justin Wilson.

Wilson nonetheless improved on his performance from yesterday though, and clocked seventh best time.

Top of the rookies who have never visited this circuit before was Robert Doornbos who recovered from a difficult start to the weekend to take sixth place on the grid.

Bruno Junqueira was eighth fastest for Dale Coyne Racing, but his teammate Katherine Legge ruined the climax of the session by spinning with less than three minutes to go, bringing out the red flag. The Briton will start last.

Her former teammate Oriol Servia predictably struggled to show his best in his first drive of a Champ Car for two months as he adapted to a car built around the injured Paul Tracy.

He will start 14th, but he is within half a second of his Forsythe teammate Mario Dominguez who is 10th.

Earlier in the day Atlantic championship leader Raphael Matos (Sierra Sierra Enterprises) took pole for this weekend's race, beating impressive rookie Frank Perera of Condor Motorsports, and local hero Jonathan Bomarito of PR1 Motorsports.

Qualifying results:

Pos   Driver         Team                         Time
 1.   S. Bourdais    Newman/Haas/Lanigan          1:07.546
 2.   W. Power       Team Australia               +  0.149
 3.   S. Pagenaud    Team Australia               +  0.337
 4.   A. Tagliani    RSPORTS                      +  0.501
 5.   G. Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan          +  0.624
 6.   R. Doornbos    Minardi Team USA             +  0.637
 7.   J. Wilson      RSPORTS                      +  0.654
 8.   B. Junqueira   Dale Coyne Racing            +  0.884
 9.   T. Gommendy    PKV Racing                   +  0.981
10.   M. Dominguez   Forsythe Championship        +  1.008
11.   N. Jani        PKV Racing                   +  1.063
12.   M. Halliday    Conquest Racing              +  1.318
13.   D. Clarke      Minardi Team USA             +  1.344
14.   O. Servia      Forsythe Championship        +  1.376
15.   R. Dalziel     Pacific Coast Motorsports    +  1.524
16.   A. Figge       Pacific Coast Motorsports    +  1.605
17.   K. Legge       Dale Coyne Racing            +  2.872