Bourdais takes provisional pole

The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing driver set his time on the harder compound black rubber, while Will Power wasted a set of red tyres trying to match him - and then had his fastest time taken away from him, as he backed Justin Wilson up while seeking a clear track ahead.

Nonetheless, the Team Australia pilot - who remains the championship leader - looks to be Bourdais' strongest challenger this weekend, as he admits his best time was a 'rubbish lap', involving too much over-driving and near-misses with the concrete walls.

Graham Rahal was third fastest, more than 0.2 seconds ahead of RSPORTS teammates Wilson and Alex Tagliani.

Robert Doornbos' spin in the Minardi USA car caused a red flag, which meant everyone was bunched for their final run, so a lot of drivers have yet to show their full potential.

That includes last year's pole-sitter Mario Dominguez, who languishes in 12th place - albeit only half a second off fourth in a very tightly packed field.

Pacific Coast Motorsports, who graduated to Champ Cars from Grand Am sportscars only this year, had good and bad news.

Ryan Dalziel did was 10th fastest this afternoon, but Alex Figge continued to suffer from the after-effects of his shunt in Long Beach and has been withdrawn from the event.

Pos  Driver            Team                      Time
 1.  S.Bourdais        Newman/Haas/Lanigan         58.376
 2.  Will Power        Team Australia              58.890  + 0.514
 3.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan         58.998  + 0.622
 4.  Justin Wilson     RSPORTS                     59.216  + 0.840
 5.  Alex Tagliani     RSPORTS                     59.269  + 0.893
 6.  Oriol Servia      Forsythe Championship       59.338  + 0.962
 7.  Neel Jani         PKV                         59.354  + 0.978
 8.  Simon Pagenaud    Team Australia              59.446  + 1.070
 9.  Bruno Junqueira   Dale Coyne                  59.575  + 1.199
10.  Ryan Dalziel      Pacific Coast Motorsports   59.746  + 1.370
11.  Matthew Halliday  Conquest                    59.747  + 1.371
12.  Mario Dominguez   Forsythe Championship       59.788  + 1.412
13.  Robert Doornbos   Minardi Team USA            59.940  + 1.564
14.  Tristan Gommendy  PKV                       1:00.348  + 1.972
15.  Dan Clarke        Minardi Team USA          1:00.365  + 1.989
16.  Katherine Legge   Dale Coyne                1:00.603  + 2.227