Bourdais tops Zolder practice 2

The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing driver lapped the 2.492-mile road course in a time of 1:14.264, setting an average speed of 120.802mph and putting him 0.l5 seconds clear of Will Power.

The provisional pole-sitter initially was tailed by Team Australia teammate Simon Pagenaud, but in the last 10 minutes Graham Rahal sprung into third before himself being bumped by Justin Wilson.

The Briton was driving an RuSPORT car - RuSPORT and Rocketsports have become two separate entities from this weekend, ditching the RSPORTS brand, so that each side can pursue separate sponsorship deals.

However, there will continue to be technical exchange between Wilson and Alex Tagliani, and between the crew of each their cars.

Team Minardi USA's Robert Doornbos clocked a time less than 0.3 seconds off Bourdais' fastest run, indicating that he should again be a contender for pole position - provided his engine doesn't implode as per yesterday's qualifying session.

Mario Dominguez - Doornbos's new teammate for the weekend following Dan Clarke's exclusion - was 13th fastest, less than 0.6 seconds slower.

Forsythe Championship Racing's Paul Tracy held fourth place until five minutes from the end of the session, wiping off his front wing and damaging front-left corner and missing the track at its quickest.

Meanwhile Katherine Legge of Dale Coyne Racing held eighth fastest for much of the session until she too wiped off her front wing and damaged her left-front with a spin in the pit-exit. Nonetheless, she ended up only 0.9 seconds off Bourdais' quickest.

Her teammate Bruno Junqueira was off the pace due to a down on power engine.

Pos  Driver            Team                          Time
 1.  S.Bourdais        Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing    1:14.264        
 2.  Will Power        Team Australia                1:14.422 + 0.158
 3.  Justin Wilson     RuSPORT                       1:14.480 + 0.216
 4.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing    1:14.525 + 0.261
 5.  Robert Doornbos   Minardi Team USA              1:14.535 + 0.271
 6.  Simon Pagenaud    Team Australia                1:14.545 + 0.281
 7.  Paul Tracy        Forsythe Championship Racing  1:14.653 + 0.389
 8.  Alex Tagliani     Rocketsports                  1:14.663 + 0.399
 9.  Tristan Gommendy  PKV Racing                    1:14.682 + 0.418
10.  Oriol Servia      Forsythe Championship Racing  1:14.684 + 0.420 
11.  Jan Heylen        Conquest Racing               1:14.808 + 0.544
12.  Neel Jani         PKV Racing                    1:14.847 + 0.583
13.  Mario Dominguez   Minardi Team USA              1:15.109 + 0.845
14.  Katherine Legge   Dale Coyne Racing             1:15.191 + 0.927
15.  Bruno Junqueira   Dale Coyne Racing             1:15.210 + 0.946
16.  Ryan Dalziel      Pacific Coast Motorsports     1:15.623 + 1.359
17.  Alex Figge        Pacific Coast Motorsports     1:16.167 + 1.903