Canada's Marie-France Dubreuil and Patrice Lauzon left the dramatics for the rest of the field en route to a stellar performance at skating's Grand Prix Final on Friday.

Taking advantage of two small slips by Bulgaria's Maxim Staviski, Dubreuil and Lauzon relied on smooth steps and out-pointed Staviski and partner Albena Denkova on technique to lead an extremely tight race after the original dance in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The world silver medallists from Montreal counted 60.44 points, edging the world champions by 0.32 points. Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin were third (59.97).

"We're pretty satisfied considering this program is only three weeks old," Dubreuil said after seeing her name and that of her partner pop up in first place. "It wasn't perfect but we skated with a lot of passion."

Dubreuil and Lauzon finished their dance with a striking rotational in which the latter held Dubreuil at nearly arm's length.

France's Isabelle Delobel and Olivier Schoenfelder (57.28) and Russia's Jana Khoklova and Sergei Novitski (53.31) rounded out the top five.

Dubreuil and Lauzon altered their routine after last month's victory at Skate Canada in Victoria.

Despite the newness of the program, they scored a mere 0.55 below their personal best for an original dance.

On Saturday, Dubreuil and Lauzon will rely on their bluesy free dance set to Etta James's At Last, in which they pretend they are letting loose at their wedding reception.

Ice dancers are not required to perform a compulsory dance at the GP Final.

Dubreuil and Lauzon finished third at the 2005 GP Final when the winners were Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov. The Russians went on to win the Olympics and retired before the 2006 world meet in Calgary, opening the door to the top to others.

"We're going in the right direction," Dubreuil said, "and we feel confident that we have the tools to achieve our goals."

France's Joubert leads men's free skate

Meanwhile, Brian Joubert of France earned 80.75 points to lead the men's free skate over Japan's Daisuke Takahashi (79.99) and Alban Preaubert of France (71.63).

Early in his James Bond-themed routine, Joubert put a hand down on his opening quad and doubled the triple toe loop that was to be the second part of his combination.

His technical marks edged those of Takahashi, who landed all his jumps comfortably but didn't attempt a quad.

Japan's Nobunari Oda was fourth at 69.15, while United States champion Johnny Weir tumbled and placed fifth (67.60).

Injured world champion Stephane Lambiel of Switzerland is not competing.

Defending champion Asada top woman

Mao Asada of Japan was first after the women's short program with 69.34 points.

The 16-year-old won the GP Final last year and was too young to be allowed into the Olympics and the world meet.

Miki Ando of Japan was second (67.52), followed by Yu-Na Kim of South Korea (65.06), who is coached by former world and Canadian champion Brian Orser.

Marcoux, Buntin 6th after short program

In the pairs short program, Shen and Zhao were tops with 68.66. China's Dan Zhang and Hao Zhang had 64.18, while Rena Inoue and John Baldwin of the United States placed third (59.18).

Canadian champions Valerie Marcoux of Gatineau, Que., and Craig Buntin of Kelowna, B.C., stood sixth with 52.98 points.

Each gold medal recipient at the event is awarded $25,000 US.