Wilson tops morning practice

The Briton scored his first Champ Car victory in Toronto two years ago, and last year he took pole position as well.

In today's practice, Wilson lapped the 1.755-mile street course in 59.018 seconds to beat provisional pole-sitter Sebastien Bourdais by 0.119 seconds.

The reigning champion and Newman/Haas/Lanigan pilot was 0.2 seconds up on local hero Paul Tracy who, like Wilson and Bourdais, left it until his last lap to set his fastest time.

The practice session also indicated that the drivers who did not use the softer compound tyres yesterday, and therefore have two sets for this afternoon's qualifying session, made the correct choice.

With the rubber that has been laid on the track by Champ Car and its support series over the last 24 hours, the track is already one second quicker than in morning practice yesterday.

This afternoon ambient temperature is expected to rise to 28°C (from 26°C at the same time yesterday) with a correspondent rise in track temperature.

That means the red-walled soft Bridgestone tyres will likely be swift at getting up to operating temperature.

The downside is that not many front-runners have used the reds yet, and although they improve grip, they can also change the handling balance of the car.

In a failed bid to beat Bourdais to provisional pole yesterday, Oriol Servia used a set of red tyres on his Forsythe Championship Racing car, so he will have just one set left to use this afternoon, but he does at least know how his car handles on the soft compound.

Servia wound up fifth at the end of the 75-minute session this morning, separated from teammate Tracy by less than a tenth of a second.

He was also beaten by Bruno Junqueira, who this weekend has Dale Coyne Racing's No. 19 car looking more competitive than it has since preseason testing.

Both Minardi Team USA and Team Australia looked slightly off the pace this morning, but Dan Clarke appears to be a match for Minardi teammate and rookie Robert Doornbos, who came into this weekend sharing the championship lead with Bourdais.

Pos  Driver              Team                        Time
 1.  Justin Wilson       RSPORTS                     59.018
 2.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas/Lanigan         59.137 + 0.119
 3.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe Championship       59.342 + 0.324
 4.  Bruno Junqueira     Dale Coyne                  59.375 + 0.357
 5.  Oriol Servia        Forsythe Championship       59.414 + 0.396
 6.  Alex Tagliani       RSPORTS                     59.580 + 0.562
 7.  Dan Clarke          Minardi Team USA            59.606 + 0.588
 8.  Tristan Gommendy    PKV                         59.616 + 0.598
 9.  Robert Doornbos     Minardi Team USA            59.703 + 0.685
10.  Simon Pagenaud      Team Australia              59.711 + 0.693
11.  Jan Heylen          Conquest                    59.889 + 0.871
12.  Will Power          Team Australia              59.937 + 0.919
13.  Graham Rahal        Newman/Haas/Lanigan         59.945 + 0.927
14.  Neel Jani           PKV                         60.020 + 1.002
15.  Katherine Legge     Dale Coyne                  60.415 + 1.397
16.  Ryan Dalziel        Pacific Coast Motorsports   60.812 + 1.794
17.  Alex Figge          Pacific Coast Motorsports   60.915 + 1.897