Barber IndyCar: de Silvestro fastest in final practice

As a sign of what could be to come later in the day, all but two of the field posted times below the official track record held by Will Power, with de Silvestro's 1m07.4073s effort bettering Power's record by 1.4 seconds.

"I'm sure [leading practice] does a lot [for my confidence]," de Silvestro said.

"I think the car is pretty good this morning. We have to see how the track is going to change for a little bit later, but the car has been pretty quick.

"I felt like every session we made improvements. Yesterday we were alright too, but it's nice to have the lap time up there now."

Simon Pagenaud came closest to matching de Silvestro with a lap just 0.09s slower than that posted by the Swiss driver, with mid-session leader Scott Dixon finishing up third fastest ahead of reigning champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dario Franchitti and JR Hildebrand.

Single-seater returnee AJ Allmendinger was quickest of the Penske drivers in seventh, leaving his full-time stable-mates Power and Helio Castroneves in 10th and 12th respectively.

Rookie Tristan Vautier also continued his strong start to the weekend, finishing the morning eighth fastest behind Allmendinger.

The session was interrupted by one brief stoppage when Sebastien Bourdais spun and stalled in the middle of the track, although the Frenchman's car was undamaged and he was able to continue running after the restart.


Pos Driver              Team                       Time        Gap     Laps
 1. Simona de Silvestro KV Dallara-Chevy           1m07.4073s            13
 2. Simon Pagenaud      Schmidt Dallara-Honda      1m07.4986s  + 0.0913  14
 3. Scott Dixon         Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m07.5343s  + 0.1270  12
 4. Ryan Hunter-Reay    Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m07.5970s  + 0.1897  12
 5. Dario Franchitti    Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m07.7162s  + 0.3089  10
 6. JR Hildebrand       Panther Dallara-Chevy      1m07.7491s  + 0.3418  11
 7. AJ Allmendinger     Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m07.7526s  + 0.3453  14
 8. Tristan Vautier     Schmidt Dallara-Honda      1m07.8433s  + 0.4360  13
 9. Justin Wilson       Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m07.8497s  + 0.4424  16
10. Will Power          Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m07.8529s  + 0.4456  17
11. James Hinchcliffe   Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m07.8714s  + 0.4641  14
12. Helio Castroneves   Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m07.8942s  + 0.4869  8 
13. Alex Tagliani       Herta Dallara-Honda        1m07.9645s  + 0.5572  12
14. EJ Viso             Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m07.9889s  + 0.5816  11
15. Sebastien Bourdais  Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m08.0075s  + 0.6002  13
16. James Jakes         Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m08.0254s  + 0.6181  13
17. Tony Kanaan         KV Dallara-Chevy           1m08.0770s  + 0.6697  13
18. Graham Rahal        Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m08.1028s  + 0.6955  14
19. Charlie Kimball     Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m08.1033s  + 0.6960  7 
20. Oriol Servia        Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy  1m08.1302s  + 0.7229  16
21. Josef Newgarden     Fisher Dallara-Honda       1m08.1415s  + 0.7342  10
22. Sebastian Saavedra  Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m08.1731s  + 0.7658  16
23. Marco Andretti      Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m08.2191s  + 0.8118  11
24. Takuma Sato         Foyt Dallara-Honda         1m08.3161s  + 0.9088  17
25. Ed Carpenter        Carpenter Dallara-Chevy    1m09.2225s  + 1.8152  18
26. Ana Beatriz         Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m09.9290s  + 2.5217  18