Bourdais tops Edmonton warm-up

The Newman/Haas Racing team as usual got their driver on some clear track to complete a relatively traffic-free session, and Forsythe did a similar job to Tracy, although the Canadian did have a harmless spin at Turn 7.

The session, which started at 8am local time, was reasonably trouble-free after two days of chaos, and as a result, the top 10 looked like a reasonable representation of potential competitiveness. Nelson Philippe, who turned 20 years old today, was third quickest, ahead of AJ Allmendinger (Forsythe), Justin Wilson (RuSPORT) and Bruno Junqueira (Newman/Haas).

However, the Rocketsports team have a major job on their hands to fix Nicky Pastorelli's car after the Dutchman put his car heavily into the tyre wall at Turn 8, resulting in a junked right-rear corner. The cars go to grid at 10.15am, for an 11am race start.

Up to that point, Rocketsports had looked impressively competitive, Pastorelli and teammate Tonis Kasemets lying 10th and 11th.

Alex Tagliani's problems continued, sinking to the bottom of the timesheets after an apparently innocuous off at Turn 8. Team Australia is running different damper packages for him and rookie teammate Will Power, and as a result, Tagliani's corner-entry understeer and mid-turn oversteer cannot simply be rectified by putting on his teammate's set-up.

As a result, Team Oz is another squad with much to do in the next two hours.

Warm-up times:

Pos  Driver           Team                             Time
 1.  S. Bourdais      Newman/Haas Racing             59.409
 2.  P. Tracy         Forsythe Championship Racing  + 0.152
 3.  N. Philippe      CTE Racing - HVM              + 0.448
 4.  A. Allmendinger  Forsythe Championship Racing  + 0.710
 5.  J. Wilson        RuSPORT                       + 0.733
 6.  B. Junqueira     Newman/Haas Racing            + 0.917
 7.  C. da Matta      RuSPORT                       + 1.213
 8.  D. Clarke        CTE Racing - HVM              + 1.319
 9.  O. Servia        PKV Racing                    + 1.550
10.  N. Pastorelli    Rocketsports Racing           + 1.605
11.  T. Kasemets      Rocketsports Racing           + 1.815
12.  W. Power         Team Australia                + 1.909
13.  K. Legge         PKV Racing                    + 2.200
14.  A. Ranger        Mi-Jack Conquest Racing       + 2.319
15.  M. Dominguez     Dale Coyne Racing             + 2.423
16.  C. Zwolsman      Mi-Jack Conquest Racing       + 2.506
17.  J. Heylen        Dale Coyne Racing             + 2.954
18.  A. Tagliani      Team Australia                + 3.065