Jani tops morning practice in Assen

Jani lapped the 2.83-mile course in 1:19.797, as the dry line on an otherwise damp track allowed drivers to get down to the vicinity of yesterday morning's practice times.

The Swiss driver's average speed was 127.674 mph and elevated him a few hundredths of a second above Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing's Graham Rahal.

Paul Tracy was third fastest for Forsythe Championship Racing, about a quarter of a second from Jani's time, while regular front-runners Will Power (Team Australia), Sebastien Bourdais (Newman/Haas/Lanigan) and Justin Wilson (RuSPORT) were fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.

Dutchman Robert Doornbos was only ninth for Minardi Team USA, the team still on the back foot having run qualifying yesterday with a malfunctioning differential.

There were three red flags, caused by spins from Alex Figge (Pacific Coast Motorsports), Rahal and Katherine Legge (Dale Coyne Racing).

Figge will lose five of his 15-lap qualifying allotment after missing yesterday's driver autograph session in Assen's town centre.

Pos  Driver             Team                       Time
 1.  Neel Jani          PKV                        1:19.797
 2.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan        1:19.816 + 0.019
 3.  Paul Tracy         Forsythe Championship      1:20.058 + 0.261
 4.  Tristan Gommendy   PKV                        1:20.197 + 0.400
 5.  Will Power         Team Australia             1:20.282 + 0.485
 6.  S.Bourdais         Newman/Haas/Lanigan        1:20.315 + 0.518
 7.  Justin Wilson      RuSPORT                    1:20.398 + 0.601
 8.  Simon Pagenaud     Team Australia             1:20.406 + 0.609
 9.  Robert Doornbos    Minardi Team USA           1:20.481 + 0.684
10.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne                 1:20.511 + 0.714
11.  Dan Clarke         Minardi Team USA           1:20.557 + 0.760
12.  Oriol Servia       Forsythe Championship      1:20.694 + 0.897
13.  Jan Heylen         Conquest                   1:20.775 + 0.978
14.  Alex Tagliani      Rocketsports               1:21.243 + 1.446
15.  Ryan Dalziel       Pacific Coast Motorsports  1:21.347 + 1.550
16.  Alex Figge         Pacific Coast Motorsports  1:21.780 + 1.983
17.  Katherine Legge    Dale Coyne                 1:23.595 + 3.798