Dixon quickest in final IndyCar practice at Detroit

The Ganassi racer took turns with Penske rival Will Power at the top of the timing screens throughout most of the session before finally trumping the Australian with a 1m11.2845s; 0.18 seconds better than Power could manage.

Andretti's Ryan Hunter-Reay overcame a 60s stop-and-hold penalty for an unsafe pit release to set the third-fastest time.

Hunter-Reay was released from his pitbox into the path of Penske's Ryan Briscoe, causing the pair to bump wheels in pitlane. Neither car came to any harm, and Briscoe went on go fourth-fastest.

The morning got off to a stuttering start with a flurry of three early red flags in quick succession, the first being triggered by Briscoe spinning on his out-lap.

Dreyer & Reinbold's Oriol Servia and last weekend's Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) were the other two culprits, although only Servia made contact with the wall. The resultant damage prevented the Spaniard from taking any further part in the session.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                Time        Gap
 1.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda      1m11.2845s
 2.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevy       1m11.4677s  + 0.1832s
 3.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti DW12-Chevy     1m11.6814s  + 0.3969s
 4.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevy       1m11.8612s  + 0.5767s
 5.  Justin Wilson        Dale Coyne DW12-Honda   1m11.9306s  + 0.6461s
 6.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevy     1m12.0063s  + 0.7218s
 7.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevy       1m12.0512s  + 0.7667s
 8.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon DW12-Chevy       1m12.1891s  + 0.9046s
 9.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda      1m12.2126s  + 0.9281s
10.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevy           1m12.2654s  + 0.9809s
11.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevy      1m12.2772s  + 0.9927s
12.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda      1m12.3431s  + 1.0586s
13.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevy           1m12.4503s  + 1.1658s
14.  Marco Andretti       Andretti DW12-Chevy     1m12.5500s  + 1.2655s
15.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne DW12-Honda   1m12.7103s  + 1.4258s
16.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda      1m12.7408s  + 1.4563s
17.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda      1m12.8934s  + 1.6089s
18.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda       1m12.8977s  + 1.6132s
19.  Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda         1m13.0949s  + 1.8104s
20.  Alex Tagliani        Herta DW12-Honda        1m13.1531s  + 1.8686s
21.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevy           1m13.4659s  + 2.1814s
22.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus          1m13.6068s  + 2.3223s
23.  Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda        1m13.6104s  + 2.3259s
24.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevy    1m15.0455s  + 3.7610s
25.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy