Wilson fastest in final practice

Running the soft-compound red-walled Bridgestone tyres - an unusual choice in a session that has no effect on grid positions - he improved his own lap time by approximately two tenths of a second to vault over the session's previous pacesetters Sebastien Bourdais and Paul Tracy.

Both the Newman/Haas Racing and Forsythe Championship Racing pilots stuck with the standard compound tyres to set their times, and with both comfortably ducking under the 57-second barrier, it suggests that Tracy was right to curse his switch to reds in yesterday's qualifying session.

The improved grip level threw Tracy's car - and that of teammate AJ Allmendinger - out of balance, allowing Bourdais to grab top slot and book his place on the front row.

Allmendinger finished this morning's session in fifth, split from his teammate by another fine performance by CTE Racing-HVM's Nelson Philippe, while Oriol Servia did a good job for PKV Racing to take sixth ahead of Cristiano da Matta (RuSPORT) and Alex Tagliani (Team Australia).

Mario Dominguez set a very respectable 11th fastest time in the Dale Coyne Racing car, but caused the session to end early with a huge shunt at Turn 9.

Clipping a kerb on the apex of the turn, the front wing broke and tucked under his front wheels, sending the car understeering into the wall on exit. Fortunately, the Mexican was able to alight without help from the Safety Team.

There was also a shunt early on in the session for Katherine Legge, when she ran on her fifth lap a little wide on the exit of Turn 8 and went on to the grass. The PKV car spun through 180 degrees before hitting, then mounting, the tyre wall.

The car is not badly damaged and Legge should be able to participate in qualifying this afternoon.

Pos  Driver              Team                    Time             Laps
 1.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT                  56.640           26
 2.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman Haas              56.810 + 0.170   21
 3.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe Championship    56.833 + 0.193   20
 4.  Nelson Philippe     CTE  HVM                 57.310 + 0.670   22
 5.  A.J. Allmendinger   Forsythe Championship    57.468 + 0.828   25
 6.  Oriol Servia        PKV                      57.752 + 1.112   26
 7.  Cristiano da Matta  RuSPORT                  57.868 + 1.228   24
 8.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia           57.974 + 1.334   22
 9.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman Haas              58.002 + 1.362   21
10.  Will Power          Team Australia           58.200 + 1.560   20
11.  Mario Dominguez     Dale Coyne               58.265 + 1.625   28
12.  Andrew Ranger       Mi-Jack Conquest         58.280 + 1.640   26
13.  Charles Zwolsman    Mi-Jack Conquest         58.290 + 1.650   27
14.  Dan Clarke          CTE  HVM                 58.613 + 1.973   25
15.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne               59.084 + 2.444   22
16.  Katherine Legge     PKV                      59.634 + 2.994    4
17.  Nicky Pastorelli    Rocketsports             59.717 + 3.077   22
18.  Tonis Kasemets      Rocketsports           1:00.214 + 3.574   24