Wilson tops practice in Mexico

The Briton's RuSPORT car lapped the 2.774-mile Autodromo Hermano Rodriguez in 1:27.078 at an average speed of 114.683mph to pip Sebastien Bourdais by 0.06 seconds.

The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing pilot spent most of the session at the top of the charts, and he and Wilson were comfortably clear of their pursuers.

Third was Oriol Servia who, as in Surfers Paradise, has replaced Tristan Gommendy in the PKV Racing entry No. 22. The Catalan's performance, was impressive given that he was driving the back up car, after an injector failed in his primary car's Cosworth engine.

Will Power and Simon Pagenaud were fourth and fifth for Team Australia, the former still nursing a wrist he sprained when bouncing off Katherine Legge's car in Surfers Paradise. He said the brace made it awkward to take the ludicrously tight chicane at the end of the back straight.

Alex Tagliani was sixth fastest for Rocketsports Racing, in what is likely to be his final race weekend with the team. That was enough to put him ahead of Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing).

Stars of the session were the Pacific Coast Motorsports drivers, with local hero Mario Dominguez and America's Alex Figge winding up 11th and 12th, just 1.55 and 1.66 seconds respectively from Wilson's top time.

Champ Car have further modified their practice sessions in order to encourage track action throughout the morning. Formerly, the aces used to wait for the backmarkers and rookies to clean the track, often rendering the circuit near empty and the spectators near sleep.

However, the morning practice now runs for 40 minutes, in which each driver must complete at least 12 laps, in order to earn themselves a ninth set of Bridgestone tyres.

There was then a 15-minute break, during which the Minardi two-seaters ran some laps, and then the Champ Car practice resumed for a further half hour.

Pos  Driver            Team                          Time
 1.  Justin Wilson     RuSPORT                       1'27.078
 2.  S.Bourdais        Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing    1'27.136 + 0.058
 3.  Oriol Servia      PKV Racing                    1'27.798 + 0.720
 4.  Will Power        Team Australia                1'27.927 + 0.849
 5.  Simon Pagenaud    Team Australia                1'27.957 + 0.879
 6.  Alex Tagliani     Rocketsports Racing           1'28.137 + 1.059
 7.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing    1'28.216 + 1.138
 8.  Bruno Junqueira   Dale Coyne Racing             1'28.321 + 1.243
 9.  Paul Tracy        Forsythe Championship Racing  1'28.354 + 1.276
10.  Dan Clarke        Minardi Team USA              1'28.441 + 1.363
11.  Mario Dominguez   Pacific Coast Motorsports     1'28.632 + 1.554
12.  Alex Figge        Pacific Coast Motorsports     1'28.742 + 1.664
13.  Neel Jani         PKV Racing                    1'28.814 + 1.736
14.  Nelson Philippe   Conquest Racing               1'28.959 + 1.881
15.  Robert Doornbos   Minardi Team USA              1'29.065 + 1.987
16.  Katherine Legge   Dale Coyne Racing             1'29.152 + 2.074
17.  David Martinez    Forsythe Championship Racing  1'29.253 + 2.175