Coyne duo impress on test day 2

Katherine Legge and Bruno Junqueira set third and fourth fastest times respectively, around 0.2 seconds slower than the reigning champion, to spring Dale Coyne Racing to a prominence they haven't enjoyed for two and a half years.

Said Legge: "It was very positive today. We're continuing to learn a lot about the car and we have got a good base set-up. The car feels good as it is, even though it's been more of a shakedown test than a set up test.

"This new car [Panoz DP01] just seems to suit my style - it feels like a Champ Car should but more refined. It's got good rear-end downforce, it's compliant over bumps and under braking it feels really secure."

The Briton, who has yet to sign a deal with any team, also said she'd be keen to stay on with Coyne, who have been notably impressed with her. "Yeah, if the decision was entirely mine, I'd like to spend the season with Dale. We're all working well together."

In some respects, Junqueira's performance was even more impressive than Legge's. He and Coyne only last night agreed to work together at Sebring, so this was the Brazilian's first taste of the Panoz. And he never got a chance to run on new tyres.

"I reckon we could have been P1 on new rubber," said the man who has three times finished runner-up in the Champ Car series. "The car had more to come from it, definitely. This morning we lost a lot of time with a throttle problem - it was stuck open 20 per cent.

"So I guess overall we did 38 laps, half of which were up to speed, half of which were shaking the No19 car down, the other half caught in traffic or on old tyres. I'm very, very happy with what we've achieved."

Asked if he would drive the Coyne car for the season, given the chance, he replied: "Definitely. No question."

Bourdais was relatively happy with the performance of his Newman/Haas Racing car after setting a 50.888-seconds lap (118.071mph) but admitted that losing time to a gearbox problem earlier in the day had lost him a lot of set-up time.

"The downshift problems meant it wasn't even worth debating what the car's handling was like," commented the Frenchman. "But in the afternoon we had the problems fixed and we ended up fast so that's good.

"However, at the moment I still have too much understeer, and the car is more sensitive to ride-height changes than the Lola, so we still have a lot to do. Once we stop having these little problems, hopefully we can really do a lot of set-up work tomorrow."

Tracy's Forsythe Championship Racing entry had a similar amount of niggly problems today, the worst of which was a throttle stuck open at 40 per cent which pitched him off the track. However, with his final flyer he set a time just 0.072 seconds shy of his rival.

Mario Dominguez and Justin Wilson were fifth and sixth for RuSPORT, just less than 0.3sec and 0.4sec respectively off Bourdais' quickest lap. Behind them followed the PKV pairing of Jimmy Vasser and Neel Jani, whose afternoon running was limited by loss of electrical power. Jani also lost time this morning with a broken rear suspension.

Newman/Haas Racing's second driver Graham Rahal ended the day in ninth, approximately 0.75 off his teammate, but having never got a chance to do a flyer on new tyres, largely due to red flags.

"At the moment, we're looking really good on old tyres but I just need to get a lap in on new ones," commented the American ace. "Looking at the tyre degradation numbers, I should be pretty much right up there with Sebastien. Hopefully we'll get a chance to prove it tomorrow."

Rahal's sentiments were echoed by last year's Rookie of the Year Will Power who turned his first laps in the DP01, taking over the Team Australia car from the impressive Simon Pagenaud.

"We're pretty quick on old tyres but we need to nail down a new-tyre set-up," said Power. "This was my first day in the car, and there is definitely a slightly different technique needed compared to the Lola.

"It turns in a little sharper so it needs more finesse - the driver needs to be smoother. And I guess I'm a little rusty. Tomorrow should be better so long as we just keep working on our own programme."

Alex Tagliani suffered downshift problems that eliminated his Rocketsports Racing entry from much of today's running, the cause being traced to an air leak that meant the shift mechanism lost pressure. His quickest time of the day left him around 1.1 seconds off Bourdais.

Nelson Philippe took over the Minardi Team USA entry from Robert Doornbos in the afternoon session, and was swiftly on the pace but ended up completing just 22 laps following a steering problem. Thus the Frenchman missed the best of the track conditions.

Pacific Coast Motorsports drivers Alex Figge and Ryan Dalziel were still struggling to overcome a troubled first day, and like Philippe didn't get the best of the track conditions.

Indeed, thanks to further gearbox issues, the pair of them combined barely completed as many laps as Bourdais alone, so in the circumstances, Figge's time - being less than 1.7 seconds off the pacesetter - was an encouraging sign of progress from the new Champ Car team.