Power tops third Vegas practice

The Team Australia driver pipped Sebastien Bourdais by two tenths of a second, setting an average of speed of 110.609mph and revealing that his pace yesterday was masked by problems.

The hot ambient conditions and the improvements to the bumps exiting the penultimate corner have contributed to Power's fastest time on the hard compound black tyres proving quicker than Paul Tracy's provisional pole time set on soft rubber.

While Bourdais looked his impressive best, his Newman/Haas/Lanigan teammate Graham Rahal was doing well until he hit the kerbing chicane too, driving into a wall.

With Rahal's car in an irreparable state for this afternoon's qualifying, the young American will compete in that session in his spare, which has not yet turned a wheel.

The man who beat Rahal to the Atlantic crown last year, Simon Pagenaud, completed just 14 laps due to a faulty gearshift, which meant he was able to change down only on an intermittent basis.

His Team Australia crew face a struggle before final qualifying if there is to be any chance of the Frenchman replicating his stunning effort from yesterday, when he was headed only by Tracy.

The Canadian Forsythe Championship Racing clocked third fastest ahead of the remarkable Bruno Junqueira, who overcame engine electrical issues to set fourth fastest in the Dale Coyne Racing car.

His teammate Katherine Legge had similar gearshift issues to Pagenaud, and her intended full-fuel run turned into a farce due to the preponderance of red flags through the 75-minute session.

Pos  Driver              Team                       Time
 1.  Will Power          Team Australia             1:19.415
 2.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas/Lanigan        1:19.629 + 0.214
 3.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe Championship      1:20.202 + 0.787
 4.  Bruno Junqueira     Dale Coyne                 1:20.391 + 0.976
 5.  Justin Wilson       RSPORTS                    1:20.828 + 1.413
 6.  Neel Jani           PKV                        1:20.926 + 1.511
 7.  Alex Tagliani       RSPORTS                    1:20.940 + 1.525
 8.  Graham Rahal        Newman/Haas/Lanigan        1:20.966 + 1.551
 9.  Tristan Gommendy    PKV                        1:21.047 + 1.632
10.  Ryan Dalziel        Pacific Coast Motorsports  1:21.165 + 1.750
11.  Simon Pagenaud      Team Australia             1:21.446 + 2.031
12.  Dan Clarke          Minardi Team USA           1:21.628 + 2.213
13.  Mario Dominguez     Forsythe Championship      1:21.748 + 2.333
14.  Robert Doornbos     Minardi Team USA           1:22.021 + 2.606
15.  Katherine Legge     Dale Coyne                 1:22.094 + 2.679
16.  Matthew Halliday    Conquest                   1:22.156 + 2.741
17.  Alex Figge          Pacific Coast Motorsports  1:22.804 + 3.389