October 19, 2007 – Will Power has reconfirmed his prowess around the Surfers Paradise street circuit by setting the second fastest time in opening qualifying for the Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast today.

Power drove the #5 Aussie Vineyards Team Australia DP01 Champ Car to second fastest in the first of two qualifying sessions for this weekend, bumped from the provisional pole position by Spaniard Oriol Servia by a mere 0.033 seconds in the final stages of the session.

The Australian had the crowd cheering half way through the session when he set a time that put his green and gold machine on the top of the timesheets, eclipsing the previous best of Sebastien Bourdais.

Power was on-track to go even quicker on his very next lap but had a harmless spin at Seek Corner, able to continue on with no contact or damage and return to the pits. Not so lucky was Bourdais, who then crashed in the first chicane trying to match Power's effort and heavily damaged his car.

Bourdais' incident brought out a red flag and a second red flag was flown when Alex Tagliani spun soon after, leaving teams less than two minutes to set a faster time.

Power's car was switched to the softer 'red' tyres for the final run to the flag but his effort was ruined when he came across a slowing car on his fast lap.

Servia, also on the Bridgestone red tyres, was able to go fractionally quicker than Power's mark and guarantee the PKV Racing pilot a front row starting position for Sunday's race. British driver Justin Wilson was third.

Power set his best time on the harder compound 'black' tyres but still managed to set a time of 1:30.895, which was quicker than the time the Toowoomba-born driver set to gain pole position for last year's Lexmark Indy 300. Power's 2006 pole time was 1:31.403.

Team Australia's rising rookie Simon Pagenaud enjoyed his first day of action around the demanding 4.47-kilometre street circuit today.

The Frenchman was ninth fastest on the opening day of the event, which is the 13th round in the 2007 Champ Car World Series.

With the experience of today's running Pagenaud is confident of climbing higher up the order for tomorrow.

Final qualifying will be run on Saturday before the Lexmark Indy 300 is staged on Sunday.

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WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY...

Will Power – "Unfortunately we are in a tough pit position so we had a lot of cars in front of us at that final run," said Power. "We decided to wait. My last lap, I still got traffic. I was surprised that Oriol was able to get a time out there, because there was so much traffic. We had the car speed. We were plenty quick enough. We just had a mixed session. The first run, it was a reasonable lap time. Obviously on my last lap of that run, I was one tenth up until the small spin. So, yeah, nothing we can do about it. We'll come back tomorrow and have a shot at pole. The fans support has been great and it's awesome to see all the green and gold in the stands, but once I'm in the car I'm pretty focused. With fast chicanes, you don't really want to look up. I think that's what Sebastien was doing, wasn't it? He must have been looking up (laughter). My red tyres came on reasonably quickly, I just didn't really get a good run on the reds at the end. I think it was tough to get the temperature in my tyres. I had to back way off because we had so many cars in front. But when I started that lap, it did feel quite nice. I'm sure there's more time in the car definitely, so I'm sure Derrick will be on the phone to Craig back at home letting him know how we went and when I speak to him I'll tell him that we have a good chance and a nice car for tomorrow."

Simon Pagenaud – "Well it's a tough track to be honest," said Pagenaud. "We had a good set-up and the Aussie Vineyards car was great. It really is a tough track, I've never seen anything like it before, so I just need to get used to it. There were two places where we lost time but we will sleep on it and try to go for it tomorrow. Tomorrow I will have a day of running under my belt, so hopefully Will and I can both give Craig Gore something to smile about back at his home."

Derrick Walker – "It was a bit of a strange finish to what was a well executed plan," said Walker. "Everything the guys worked on prior to coming here really panned out and worked really well. We were right on target. You just never can predict the yellows and the traffic. Our pit position put us at a little bit of a disadvantage at the end because a lot of people went out in front of us we had to take a little bit longer to get a gap. Of course there was so little time at the end we didn't have enough time to get up to speed well enough to get pole. I think the car is perfectly capable of getting pole and tomorrow I think we will be there with at least one of our cars. Simon has had a typical rookie year. For the first day it's quite a special track here and he's finding out, as every rookie does, how difficult it is to put it together here at Surfers. But he's still on his game and the guys are doing a great job with him and getting him the car he needs. It's a bit strange not having my partner in crime Craig Gore here shouting at me on why we didn't get the pole, I'm sure he's shouting at me from his home and cheering us on at the same time. We just want to wish him well and hope that we can do better for him tomorrow."

Craig Gore – "A very solid day for the team and to be pipped at the post right at the end of the session is frustrating," said Gore. "It's a classic case of so near but yet so far. It was a great effort by everyone but we fell just short of the top spot. Will's car was great today and I'm sure there is a fair bit of speed left in it for final qualifying tomorrow. It's a shame he just missed the pole today but now he can focus on getting the top spot tomorrow. Simon would have learned a great deal today and will enter tomorrow with some tricks he would have learned today. This track is about as tough as it gets so to be in the top 10 on his first day around the place is a solid start. The guys are doing a fantastic job and it's great to hear that the crowd is really getting behind Team Australia. I wish I was there with the crew but I know that they are a fantastic bunch and have everything under control to go one better for tomorrow."

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RESULTS: Provisional Qualifying
1. #22 Oriol Servia 1:30.862
2. #5 Will Power 1:30.895
3. #9 Justin Wilson 1:31.365
4. #3 Paul Tracy 1:31.820
5. #21 Neel Jani (R) 1:32.520
6. #14 Robert Doornbos (R) 1:32.675
7. #19 Bruno Junqueira 1:32.875
8. #1 Sebastien Bourdais 1:32.883
9. #15 Simon Pagenaud (R) 1:33.018
10. #34 Nelson Philippe 1:33.187
11. #4 Dan Clarke 1:33.866
12. #11 Katherine Legge 1:33.986
13. #2 Graham Rahal (R) 1:34.049
14. #7 David Martinez (R) 1:35.578
15. #29 Alex Figge (R) 1:44.381
16. #8 Alex Tagliani 3:20.825
17. #28 Mario Dominguez 4:27.161

2007 Champ Car World Series Points Standings - After Round 12 of 14
1. #1 Sebastien Bourdais 301
2. #9 Justin Wilson 243
3. #14 Robert Doornbos 238
4. #5 Will Power 228
5. #2 Graham Rahal 209
6. #3 Oriol Servia 205
7. #21 Neel Jani 203
8. #15 Simon Pagenaud 192
9. #19 Bruno Junqueira 191
10. #8 Alex Tagliani 180

2007 Roshfrans Champ Car Rookie of the Year- After Round 12 of 14
1. #14 Robert Doornbos 238
2. #2 Graham Rahal 209
3. #21 Neel Jani 203
4. #15 Simon Pagenaud 192
5. #22 Tristan Gommendy 140
6. #28 Ryan Dalziel 116
7. #29 Alex Figge 77
8. #42 Matt Halliday 18

ABOUT SURFERS PARADISE
Location: Gold Coast, Australia
Circuit Type: Street Course
First Champ Car Event: 1991
Track Length: 4.47 kilometres