Bourdais tops Surfers warm-up

Bourdais, who has flown under the radar for most of the weekend, needs only to finish 14th or better to clinch his fourth Champ Car title on the trot.

But since crashing into the wall on Friday, the Frenchman has appeared somewhat subdued, as everyone has been overshadowed by Team Australia fever.

However, this morning the No. 1 car threaded its way round Queensland's 2.795-mile headrush in 1:32.343 to clock a 108.963 mph lap and pip Wilson by just 0.053 seconds.

The Briton is still baffled by his lack of pace in yesterday's qualifying session, which left him fifth on the grid.

"The car felt good," Wilson said. "I thought maybe I'd lost a tenth at the first chicane, but I came into the pitlane at the end of my run saying to myself 'I think that might be good enough for pole'.

"I got out and looked at the times and I was just speechless. Half a second off Will [Power], and a quarter second of Paul [Tracy] and Sebastien [Bourdais]. Honestly, I have no idea what happened.

"I watched a replay of Will's lap, where he smacked a wall and screwed up another corner, and he was half a second up on me - bizarre!"

Bruno Junqueira, who will make his 100th Champ Car start this afternoon, was third fastest this morning, lapping in his Dale Coyne Racing car 0.25 seconds off Bourdais's time.

This was enough for the Brazilian to beat Alex Tagliani (Rocketsports Racing), Oriol Servia (PKV Racing) and local hero Will Power of Team Australia.

Graham Rahal was less fortunate, losing drive on his fifth lap and having to abandon his Newman/Haas/Lanigan car down an escape road.

Mario Dominguez had a faulty wheel-speed sensor on his car, obliging his Pacific Coast Motorsports crew to change the part. This hold-up restricted the Mexican to just seven laps.