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IndyCar St Petersburg: Scott Dixon tops practice two from Will Power

Chip Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon recorded the quickest time in an interrupted second practice session for the IndyCar season-opener on the streets of St Petersburg

The New Zealander put in a 1m02.559s early in the 45-minute session, which was limited to only 35 minutes of running as a result of a red flag.

New Andretti recruit Takuma Sato locked up and hit the wall at Turn 13 while on his first lap of the circuit early on in the session.

That impact destroyed the left-front corner of Sato's car and brought out the red flag for just under 10 minutes while it was recovered to the pits.

Once track activity resumed, Dixon moved to the top of the timesheets and his early lap on the primary black tyre proved unbeatable by the end of the session.

New rules for 2017 mean the softer, red tyre was used in second practice for the first time since the alternate tyre's introduction and the majority of the best laps - Dixon's aside - were set on the compound.

Penske's Will Power bounced back from his Turn 10 crash in the opening practice session to finish second-fastest in practice two.

Two-time St Petersburg winner Power wound up 0.282 seconds behind Dixon, with Tony Kanaan in third and Charlie Kimball next up.

Dale Coyne Racing recruit Sebastien Bourdais finished three and a half tenths off the outright pace to complete the top five.

Following a low-key debut for Penske in first practice, Josef Newgarden ended the second session in sixth, while James Hinchcliffe made a late improvement to jump to seventh.

Practice one pacesetter Marco Andretti put in the eighth-quickest time, with 2016 champion Simon Pagenaud and AJ Foyt's Carlos Munoz rounding out the top 10.

PRACTICE TWO TIMES:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 1m02.5591s - 14
2 Will Power Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m02.8416s 0.2825s 16
3 Tony Kanaan Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 1m02.8545s 0.2954s 18
4 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 1m02.8748s 0.3157s 20
5 Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 1m02.9056s 0.3465s 20
6 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m02.9074s 0.3483s 16
7 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 1m02.9828s 0.4237s 16
8 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 1m03.0255s 0.4664s 17
9 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m03.1462s 0.5871s 10
10 Carlos Munoz AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 1m03.1495s 0.5904s 17
11 J.R. Hildebrand Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m03.1995s 0.6404s 15
12 Helio Castroneves Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m03.2001s 0.6410s 15
13 Max Chilton Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 1m03.2146s 0.6555s 16
14 Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 1m03.3057s 0.7466s 16
15 Alexander Rossi Andretti Herta Dallara/Honda 1m03.3199s 0.7608s 13
16 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 1m03.3281s 0.7690s 11
17 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 1m03.4818s 0.9227s 20
18 Spencer Pigot Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m03.4909s 0.9318s 14
19 Ed Jones Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 1m03.6466s 1.0875s 15
20 Conor Daly AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 1m04.1205s 1.5614s 18


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