Pagenaud fastest in warm-up

The Frenchman flung his Team Australia car around the 2.106-mile Burke Lakefront Airport course at an average speed of 131.038 mph, stopping the clocks at 57.858 seconds.

That left him two-tenths of a second quicker than pole-sitter Sebastien Bourdais, although the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing driver did not take to the track until the final 10 minutes of the half-hour session, and thus completed just 12 laps to his compatriot's 21.

Paul Tracy proved that his optimism with his car on used tyres has been justified, clocking third fastest, just ahead of the second Newman/Haas/Lanigan car and the second Team Australia car of Graham Rahal and Will Power respectively.

Star performer of the session was Bruno Junqueira who was little more than half a second away from Pagenaud, but his Dale Coyne Racing teammate Katherine Legge was down in 16th.

After the session ended, the drivers practised their standing starts on the pitstraight. No-one stalled, and Alex Tagliani of RSPORTS appeared the best. It is also worth noting that Sebastien Bourdais has chosen pole position to be on the clean outside line which, given Cleveland's propensity for Turn 1 accidents despite its wide airport layout, may well make him vulnerable to attack at the start.

However, Bourdais' practice standing start looked very good, so he may well be clear of the expected trouble. On the other hand, the drivers starting on the right hand side of the grid in the Atlantic race this morning may do a good job of cleaning the unfavoured side of the track.

Pos  Driver              Team                       Time
 1.  Simon Pagenaud      Team Australia               57.858    
 2.  S.Bourdais          Newman/Haas/Lanigan          58.054  + 0.196
 3.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe Championship        58.127  + 0.269
 4.  Graham Rahal        Newman/Haas/Lanigan          58.277  + 0.419
 5.  Will Power          Team Australia               58.346  + 0.488
 6.  Bruno Junqueira     Dale Coyne Racing            58.400  + 0.542
 7.  Robert Doornbos     Minardi Team USA             58.412  + 0.554
 8.  Oriol Servia        Forsythe Championship        58.482  + 0.624
 9.  Justin Wilson       RSPORTS                      58.535  + 0.677
10.  Dan Clarke          Minardi Team USA             58.713  + 0.855
11.  Tristan Gommendy    PKV Racing                   58.841  + 0.983
12.  Ryan Dalziel        Pacific Coast Motorsports    58.912  + 1.054
13.  Jan Heylen          Conquest Racing              58.948  + 1.090
14.  Neel Jani           PKV Racing                   59.039  + 1.181
15.  Alex Tagliani       RSPORTS                      59.216  + 1.358
16.  Katherine Legge     Dale Coyne Racing            59.334  + 1.476
17.  Alex Figge          Pacific Coast Motorsports  1:00.028  + 2.170