Power Quickest In Opening Practice

[Mark H]

IndyCar championship leader Will Power topped yet another session as he led the way in opening practice in Long Beach this morning.

 

The Australian has a fine record at the track, having won the Champ Car finale there in 2008 and started from pole last year.

 

As the session settled following some frenetic late place-swapping that saw a Ganassi one-two swiftly become a Penske one-two-three, Power emerged on top by 0.1005 seconds over his Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves, another former Long Beach winner.

 

Ganassi's Scott Dixon denied Penske a top three sweep by pushing Ryan Briscoe back to fourth late on, with Dario Franchitti fifth in the second Ganassi car.

 

Tony Kanaan was Andretti Autosport's top runner in sixth, as his team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay fell to eighth in the end after a long spell in second. They were split by Fazzt's Alex Tagliani.

 

Justin Wilson (Dreyer & Reinbold) and EJ Viso (KV) completed the top ten.

 

Pos Driver Team Time Gap

1. Will Power Penske 1m11.4038s

2. Helio Castroneves Penske 1m11.5044s + 0.1005s

3. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1m11.5430s + 0.1391s

4. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1m11.5477s + 0.1439s

5. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 1m11.6379s + 0.2340s

6. Tony Kanaan Andretti 1m11.6410s + 0.2371s

7. Alex Tagliani Fazzt 1m11.7610s + 0.3572s

8. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 1m11.9261s + 0.5223s

9. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 1m11.9741s + 0.5703s

10. EJ Viso KV 1m11.9886s + 0.5847s

11. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1m12.1321s + 0.5847s

12. Mario Moraes KV 1m12.1698s + 0.7283s

13. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold 1m12.2397s + 0.8358s

14. Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon/de Ferran 1m12.4120s + 1.0081s

15. Simona de Silvestro HVM 1m12.4429s + 1.0391s

16. Marco Andretti Andretti 1m12.4582s + 1.0543s

17. Dan Wheldon Panther 1m12.5258s + 1.1220s

18. Vitor Meira Foyt 1m12.5832s + 1.1794s

19. Takuma Sato KV 1m12.6696s + 1.2657s

20. Graham Rahal Sarah Fisher 1m13.1848s + 1.7810s

21. Danica Patrick Andretti 1m13.3593s + 1.9555s

22. Mario Romancini Conquest 1m13.4407s + 2.0368s

23. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 1m14.0553s + 2.6514s

24. Bertrand Baguette Conquest 1m14.4159s + 3.0121s

25. Milka Duno Dale Coyne 1m19.5348s + 5.1188s

 

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82941