Team Australia strong in San Jose

The Australian, who retired from the last round of the series with steering failure, averaged 103.695 mph to head a Team Australia 1-2, lapping 0.19 seconds faster than rookie teammate Simon Pagenaud for a lap time of 50.097 seconds.

Sebastien Bourdais of Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing and Justin Wilson of RSPORTS were predictably the closest challengers to the green and yellow cars, but Bourdais' teammate Graham Rahal drove into a wall when his car snapped left under braking for Turn 6.

Bruno Junqueira saved his best to last, setting fifth fastest time on his final flying lap, to carry on the momentum he built up in the last two rounds for Dale Coyne Racing.

If recent history is any indicator of form, unlike many of the other drivers, Junqueira seems to have no problem with the balance change switching from hard compound tyres to softs, which might give him a strong shout at provisional pole in today's first qualifying session.

Oriol Servia upheld Forsythe Championship Racing's honour with sixth fastest, but teammate Paul Tracy was in 11th, 0.85 seconds shy of the top time.

Tracy's former teammate Mario Dominguez, who is standing in for the injured Ryan Dalziel at Pacific Coast Motorsports, was less than a second away from Power, just 0.06 seconds ahead of teammate Alex Figge who completed 38 laps, more than any other driver.

Dan Clarke, as in Edmonton, is just slightly ahead of championship aspirant teammate Robert Doornbos, but the pair currently pad out the wrong end of the top 10.

Although this is known as simple circuit to learn, it has already proved difficult to extract the last tenth or two from what is currently a dirty track surface.

Several drivers including Bourdais, Rahal and Servia went into run-off zones, while Jan Heylen made smart contact with a wall and broke a rear toelink, restricting him to just 15 laps.

Pos Driver            Team                         Time     
 1. Will Power        Team Australia               50.097
 2. Simon Pagenaud    Team Australia               50.286  + 0.189
 3. S.Bourdais        Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing   50.389  + 0.292
 4. Justin Wilson     RSPORTS                      50.458  + 0.361
 5. Bruno Junqueira   Dale Coyne Racing            50.463  + 0.366
 6. Oriol Servia      Forsythe                     50.580  + 0.483
 7. Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing   50.707  + 0.610
 8. Alex Tagliani     RSPORTS                      50.716  + 0.619
 9. Dan Clarke        Minardi Team USA             50.853  + 0.756
10. Robert Doornbos   Minardi Team USA             50.940  + 0.843
11. Paul Tracy        Forsythe                     50.959  + 0.862
12. Mario Dominguez   Pacific Coast Motorsports    51.051  + 0.954
13. Alex Figge        Pacific Coast Motorsports    51.114  + 1.017
14. Katherine         Legge Dale Coyne Racing      51.141  + 1.044
15. Jan Heylen        Conquest Racing              51.206  + 1.109
16. Tristan Gommendy  PKV Racing                   51.462  + 1.365
17. Neel Jani         PKV Racing                   52.080  + 1.983