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Wilson tops morning practice

Justin Wilson gave his RuSPORT team a welcome fillip by conclusively topping morning practice at Surfers Paradise

The lanky Briton, who is currently without a ride for 2008 due to the impending demise of his Colorado-based squad, lapped the 2.795-mile track in a time of 1:32.754, setting an average speed of 108.481 mph.

Given that he won the previous Champ Car race at Assen six weeks ago, he had the best pitlane spot - right at pit exit - which meant after the multiple red flags as drivers struck walls and/or spun and stalled, Wilson was the first out onto the circuit.

With a clear track ahead, he set fastest sector after fastest sector, and once he finally nudged local hero Will Power off top spot, the RuSPORT entrant never looked under threat.

Power had a mixed session, with two wall-banging moments, as he tested the absolute limits of a track made slightly treacherous by the V8 Supercar's Dunlop control rubber smearing the track, and wound up 0.35 seconds off Wilson in third.

The driver separating them was none other than Oriol Servia in his first race back with 2006 employers PKV Racing. The Catalan, who is replacing Tristan Gommendy who is suffering 'business difficulties', had a couple of off-track excursions, one of which caused a red flag. But on track, he was less than 0.2 seconds off Wilson.

Bruno Junqueira and Mario Dominguez punched above their weight with Dale Coyne Racing and Pacific Coast Motorsports respectively, to take fourth and sixth places, separated by Sebastien Bourdais.

The French champion elect seemed to suffer the worst of the red flag scenarios, and then made a couple of errors, but it was still a surprise to see the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing car half a second off the pace.

His compatriot Simon Pagenaud was comfortably the best of the Surfers Paradise virgins, even though he was 0.7 seconds off his Team Australia teammate, Power.

Alex Tagliani tagged a wall and broke his left front suspension after completing only eight laps, but his time was still enough to outpace Paul Tracy's Forsythe Championship Racing entry, as well as series returnee Nelson Philippe in the Conquest Racing car.

Pos  Driver             Team                       Time
 1.  Justin Wilson      RuSPORT                    1:32.754
 2.  Oriol Servia       PKV Racing                 1:32.939 + 0.185
 3.  Will Power         Team Australia             1:33.129 + 0.375
 4.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne Racing          1:33.220 + 0.466
 5.  S. Bourdais        Newman/Haas/Lanigan        1:33.278 + 0.524
 6.  Mario Dominguez    Pacific Coast              1:33.734 + 0.980
 7.  Simon Pagenaud     Team Australia             1:33.841 + 1.087
 8.  Alex Tagliani      Rocketsports Racing        1:34.167 + 1.413
 9.  Paul Tracy         Forsythe Championship      1:34.174 + 1.420
10.  Nelson Philippe    Conquest Racing            1:34.362 + 1.608
11.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan        1:34.372 + 1.618
12.  Robert Doornbos    Minardi Team USA           1:34.602 + 1.848
13.  Katherine Legge    Dale Coyne Racing          1:34.950 + 2.196
14.  Neel Jani          PKV Racing                 1:35.285 + 2.531
15.  Dan Clarke         Minardi Team USA           1:35.337 + 2.583
16.  Alex Figge         Pacific Coast              1:36.580 + 3.826
17.  David Martinez     Forsythe Championship      1:37.652 + 4.898

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