Defending champion
Sebastien Bourdais continued to lead the way on Wednesday at Sebring as the first Champ Car test with the new Panoz DP01 chassis moved into a second day.
The Newman/Haas driver improved his best time to a 50.888secs which was good enough to edge out Forsythe rival Paul Tracy by just over a tenth of a second. However the day wasn't without problems for the Frenchman, who was only able to complete 55 laps due to some teething problems with the car.
“We had trouble today and ended up re-baselining the car, so we basically set today's time with yesterday's car,” he admitted. “We didn't make a step forward today, but I think we have everything set for a good day tomorrow.
Similar problems meant Tracy completed even fewer laps, with the Canadian managing 42 laps over the course of the day. However, despite being unable to complete all the work that the team had hoped to get through, Tracy was happy to be turning quick laps by the end of the day.
“The problems kept us from getting into our testing programme for the day, but to be second on the timesheets is very encouraging,” he said. “The car feels good and I think we have a good line on it, but we haven't had enough track time to start making changes to see how they affect the car.”
Behind the leading pair, there was something of a surprise as Dale Coyne Racing emerged as the closest challengers with Katherine Legge and Bruno Junqueira posted the third and fourth fastest times.
Legge produced a strong fastest lap of 51.060secs in her second day at the wheel of the new car, while Junqueira's performance was arguably even better as he received a late call-up from the team to make his first appearance of the pre-season – his best time being less than a tenth of a second behind Legge.
![Katherine Legge completed the first open test lap with the new Panoz DP01 while running with Dale Coyne Racing at Sebring [Pic courtesy of the Champ Car World Series]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/285466.jpg)
