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Sonoma IndyCar: Ryan Hunter-Reay fastest in first practice session

Ryan Hunter-Reay set the pace in the opening practice session for this weekend's IndyCar race at Sonoma

The Andretti driver claimed the top spot with a best lap of 1m18.6814s, a scant 0.01 seconds faster than closest rival Helio Castroneves' Penske entry.

Dario Franchitti, who topped the times in Wednesday's open test, was third-fastest ahead of Marco Andretti.

Ryan Briscoe, still recovering from the wrist injury that sidelined him at Mid-Ohio, returns to the cockpit for Panther Racing this weekend and led the middle phase of the session before finishing up with the fifth-best time.

Former Panther driver JR Hildebrand was ninth-fastest in his first session with Bryan Herta Autosport.

Series debutant Lucas Luhr survived one brief off-track moment at Turn 2 in the second Sarah Fisher Hartman entry and finished up 25th, 2.2s off Hunter-Reay's time.

The morning was interrupted just once by red flags when the session was briefly stopped to allow a stray tyre to be retrieved from Turn 9.

Pos  Driver               Team/Engine      Time        Gap
 1.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Chevy   1m18.6814s
 2.  Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy     1m18.6976s  +0.0162s
 3.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi/Honda    1m18.8124s  +0.1310s
 4.  Marco Andretti       Andretti/Chevy   1m18.9740s  +0.2926s
 5.  Ryan Briscoe         Panther/Chevy    1m19.0182s  +0.3368s
 6.  Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda      1m19.0318s  +0.3504s
 7.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy     1m19.0834s  +0.4020s
 8.  EJ Viso              Andretti/Chevy   1m19.0976s  +0.4162s
 9.  JR Hildebrand        Herta/Honda      1m19.1567s  +0.4753s
10.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Chevy   1m19.1968s  +0.5154s
11.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda     1m19.3398s  +0.6584s
12.  Will Power           Penske/Chevy     1m19.4268s  +0.7454s
13.  Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda      1m19.4952s  +0.8138s
14.  James Jakes          Rahal/Honda      1m19.4977s  +0.8163s
15.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Honda    1m19.5009s  +0.8195s
16.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt/Honda    1m19.5590s  +0.8776s
17.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon/Chevy     1m19.5990s  +0.9176s
18.  Simona de Silvestro  KV/Chevy         1m19.6014s  +0.9200s
19.  James Davison        Coyne/Honda      1m19.7624s  +1.0810s
20.  Tony Kanaan          KV/Chevy         1m19.8950s  +1.2136s
21.  Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda       1m19.9330s  +1.2516s
22.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda    1m20.0155s  +1.3341s
23.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Honda    1m20.2088s  +1.5274s
24.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter/Chevy  1m20.2279s  +1.5465s
25.  Lucas Luhr           Fisher/Honda     1m20.9336s  +2.2522s

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