Bourdais heads opening practice

The Frenchman had appeared to be struggling to get out of the 1:34s, but with his final two laps, the Newman/Haas driver took second with a 1:33.891, then grabbed top slot from Alex Tagliani's Team Australia car with a devastating 1:33.441, an average speed of 107.683 mph.

Tagliani and teammate Will Power held first and second for much of the second half of the session, much to the delight of the crowd. However, RuSPORT Justin Wilson pipped Power for third in the final two minutes, and Power - like many before him - overcooked his entry into Turn 1 on his final run.

Paul Tracy and AJ Allmendinger were fifth and eighth fastest, despite neither being out on track in the closing minutes. Tracy clipped a tyre at the daunting VB chicane, which broke his left front suspension and sent him spearing hard-left into the wall. Allmendinger, meanwhile, went straight on at Turn 3 and stalled.

Champ Car rookie Ryan Briscoe did a commendable job to keep his RuSPORT car off the wall, a gnat's quicker than Antonio Pizzonia who is driving the Rocketsports car for the third time this year. Andreas Wirth had mild contact with a wall early in the session, his Dale Coyne car propping up the timesheets.

Pos  Driver              Team                   Time
 1.  Sebastien Bourdais  Newman/Haas            1:33.441
 2.  Alex Tagliani       Team Australia         1:33.813 + 0.372
 3.  Justin Wilson       RuSPORT                1:34.032 + 0.591
 4.  Will Power          Team Australia         1:34.074 + 0.633
 5.  Paul Tracy          Forsythe               1:34.110 + 0.669
 6.  Bruno Junqueira     Newman/Haas            1:34.122 + 0.681
 7.  Oriol Servia        PKV                    1:34.617 + 1.176
 8.  AJ Allmendinger     Forsythe               1:34.852 + 1.411
 9.  Nelson Philippe     CTE - HVM              1:34.906 + 1.465
10.  Mario Dominguez     Rocketsports           1:35.428 + 1.987
11.  Ryan Briscoe        RuSPORT                1:35.660 + 2.219
12.  Antonio Pizzonia    Rocketsports           1:35.694 + 2.253
13.  Dan Clarke          CTE - HVM              1:35.783 + 2.342
14.  Andrew Ranger       Mi-Jack Conquest       1:36.040 + 2.599
15.  Katherine Legge     PKV                    1:37.003 + 3.562
16.  Jan Heylen          Dale Coyne             1:37.855 + 4.414
17.  Charles Zwolsman    Mi-Jack Conquest       1:38.222 + 4.781
18.  Andreas Wirth       Dale Coyne             1:38.650 + 5.209