Power grabs provisional pole

The Australian, who won the opening race of the season in Las Vegas last week, proved his mastery of the world famous 1.968-mile course by using the harder compound black tyres to chalk up a 1:07.920 lap at an average speed of 104.311mph.

"On my first run I was finding it really hard to get a handling balance on the car," Power said, "and although I knew I could improve my time, at that point Sebastien was half a second up on us, I expected him to improve.

"But right at the end I found a clear lap and it was good enough."

Triple champion Bourdais, bouncing back from bad weekend in Vegas, was reasonably happy with his run, despite losing out at the final gasp to the championship leader.

The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing pilot said: "It was a good session. We really needed to get it back together after our time in Las Vegas, and we did a good job. But well done, good job to Team Australia."

Bourdais' compatriot and Power's teammate Simon Pagenaud finished an impressive third after putting on red soft compound tyres.

"I only did two laps on the tyres, and there was more to come," The reigning Atlantic champion said.

"Even though I know this circuit, I still need to be careful in the first few laps because obviously the weight of the car and the speed you're taking into corners is very different.

"I will get better better, but it's still good to be here. And although I put on reds to try and take pole, it was interesting to do that because that means I have some feedback on the soft tyres to give Will and to use myself in final qualifying tomorrow."

Alex Tagliani of RSPORTS continued his strong start to the season with the fourth fastest time, but fellow Canadian Paul Tracy was gutted to miss out on the final run with a transmission failure.

Nonetheless, Tracy's fastest time was enough to leave him fifth, with Forsythe Championship Racing teammate Mario Dominguez starting alongside in sixth.

Katherine Legge of Dale Coyne Racing ended within 0.7 seconds of team leader Bruno Junqueira, while Alex Figge - a rookie driver with a rookie team - put the Pacific Coast Motorsports car into 11th.

Matos on Atlantics Pole

Meanwhile, earlier this afternoon, Las Vegas race winner Raphael Matos put his Sierra Sierra car on provisional pole for the Atlantic race.

Matos was followed by Californian Jonathan Bomarito of PR1 Motorsports, and the remarkable Alan Sciuto, who is running his own car, having been deserted at the eleventh hour pre-season by the demise of Gelles Racing's Atlantic squad.

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, qualifying 1 results:

Pos  Driver              Team                       Time
 1.  Will Power          Team Australia             1:07.920
 2.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas/Lanigan        1:07.970 + 0.050
 3.  Simon Pagenaud      Team Australia             1:08.200 + 0.280
 4.  Alex Tagliani       RSPORTS                    1:08.304 + 0.384
 5.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe Championship      1:08.573 + 0.653
 6.  Mario Dominguez     Forsythe Championship      1:08.708 + 0.788
 7.  Tristan Gommendy    PKV                        1:08.823 + 0.903
 8.  Graham Rahal        Newman/Haas/Lanigan        1:09.063 + 1.143
 9.  Bruno Junqueira     Dale Coyne                 1:09.099 + 1.179
10.  Justin Wilson       RSPORTS                    1:09.553 + 1.633
11.  Alex Figge          Pacific Coast Motorsports  1:09.585 + 1.665
12.  Katherine Legge     Dale Coyne                 1:09.766 + 1.846
13.  Dan Clarke          Minardi Team USA           1:09.773 + 1.853
14.  Ryan Dalziel        Pacific Coast Motorsports  1:09.790 + 1.870
15.  Robert Doornbos     Minardi Team USA           1:09.865 + 1.945
16.  Neel Jani           PKV                        1:09.991 + 2.071
17.  Matthew Halliday    Conquest                   1:10.155 + 2.235