Wilson tops first practice in Mexico

The RuSPORT driver's time of 1:27.214, with an average speed of 114.505mph, was a tenth of a second quicker than triple champion Sebastien Bourdais for Newman/Haas, and 1.1 seconds quicker than third placed driver Oriol Servia of PKV Racing.

Wilson has taken the cast off his right arm, where his fractured scaphoid is said to be healing nicely.

However, he still has strapping on it, and he has so far avoided kerbs in case the jolt through his arm injures it some more.

Adam Carroll, who, like Wilson, completed ten laps of the course yesterday, remains on standby.

Alex Tagliani of Team Australia is half a second off Servia, but has nailed fourth fastest time, a fraction ahead of Bruno Junqueira (Newman/Haas), local hero Mario Dominguez (Rocketsports), and Tagliani's own teammate Will Power.

Forsythe Championship Racing's lap times were wholly unrepresentative of their stand-in drivers' potential, as Buddy Rice and David Martinez had a first gear so long that they couldn't pull out of the achingly slow chicane before Peraltada.

The Forsythe cars were pulling only 3300rpm, when the Cosworth V8 turbo only hits its power curve at 9000.

"Looking at all the other splits, we'd have been third or fourth fastest," said Rice. "This is a great course, and to have the opportunity to do this race with a team like Forsythe is just fantastic.

"When this gearing's changed, I think we can start to show the potential of this car."

Pos  Driver              Team                   Time              Laps
 1.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT                1:27.214           13
 2.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman Haas            1:27.322 + 0.108   10
 3.  Oriol Servia        PKV                    1:28.346 + 1.132   16
 4.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia         1:28.800 + 1.586   17
 5.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman Haas            1:28.813 + 1.599   10
 6.  Mario Dominguez     Rocketsports           1:28.821 + 1.607   15
 7.  Will Power          Team Australia         1:28.825 + 1.611   14
 8.  Andrew Ranger       Mi-Jack Conquest       1:28.970 + 1.756   15
 9.  Nelson Philippe     CTE HVM                1:29.117 + 1.903   15
10.  Ryan Briscoe        RuSPORT                1:29.212 + 1.998   22
11.  Antonio Pizzonia    Rocketsports           1:29.416 + 2.202   18
12.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne             1:29.775 + 2.561   18
13.  Charles Zwolsman    Mi-Jack Conquest       1:29.911 + 2.697   17
14.  Katherine Legge     PKV                    1:29.985 + 2.771   22
15.  Buddy Rice          Forsythe Championship  1:30.553 + 3.339   12
16.  Andreas Wirth       Dale Coyne             1:30.823 + 3.609   23
17.  David Martinez      Forsythe Championship  1:31.302 + 4.088   22
18.  Dan Clarke          CTE HVM                1:34.277 + 7.063    3