Philippe leads San Jose practice

CTE-HVM's increasingly impressive teenager deposed long-time pacesetter Oriol Servia right at the end of the session, with AJ Allmendinger then pushing Servia down to third.

The inaugural San Jose race last year was blighted by the fiercely bumpy course, which saw cars leaving the ground over tram lines in places. The drivers enjoyed a much smoother ride this year after intensive efforts by the organisers.

Practice was interrupted by three red flags, first when Dan Clarke stopped on track, and then when Will Power gave Team Australia yet more repairs to make after ploughing into the tyres at Turn 1.

The final stoppage was caused by no lesser figure than Paul Tracy, who had been on course to top the timesheets before finding the wall.

Katherine Legge, Jan Heylen, Bruno Junqueira, Nicky Pastorelli and Sebastien Bourdais all had spins or visited run-off areas as well, but escaped without damage.

Reigning Atlantic champion Charles Zwolsman was the sensation of practice - not only leading the rookie pack, but going seventh quickest overall, ahead of former champion Cristiano da Matta and Newman/Haas' Bruno Junqueira.

Practice times:

Pos  Driver              Team              Time
 1.  Nelson Philippe     CTE-HVM         50.856
 2.  AJ Allmendinger     Forsythe        51.003  + 0.147
 3.  Oriol Servia        PKV             51.027  + 0.171
 4.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas     51.188  + 0.332
 5.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia  51.344  + 0.488
 6.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT         51.350  + 0.494
 7.  Charles Zwolsman    Conquest        51.544  + 0.688
 8.  Cristiano da Matta  RuSPORT         51.608  + 0.752
 9.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman/Haas     51.647  + 0.791
10.  Mario Dominguez     Dale Coyne      51.653  + 0.797
11.  Andrew Ranger       Conquest        51.763  + 0.907
12.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe        51.804  + 0.948
13.  Dan Clarke          CTE-HVM         51.832  + 0.976
14.  Katherine Legge     PKV             51.853  + 0.997
15.  Will Power          Team Australia  52.242  + 1.386
16.  Nicky Pastorelli    Rocketsports    52.412  + 1.656
17.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne      53.084  + 2.228