Wheldon sets pace in first practice

As expected, the teams joining the IRL IndyCar Series from Champ Car were not a match for the established squads, with Newman Haas Lanigan's Justin Wilson the best of the 'transition' drivers in 16th overall, half a second off the pace.

Wheldon set his best time of 25.0037 seconds in the first half-hour of the one and three quarter hour session and remained unbeaten.

Behind the two Ganassi cars, team symmetry was maintained as Penske teammates Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves filled took third and fourth, and the Andretti-Green Racing quartet filled fifth to eighth places, ahead of the two Vision Racing cars.

Marco Andretti was fractionally faster than AGR teammates Hideki Mutoh, Tony Kanaan and Danica Patrick.

The session passed largely without incident, although there were several yellows for debris and track inspections after drivers reported cut tyres, including second-placed Dixon.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time     Speed
 1.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi              25.0037  213.808
 2.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              25.0211  213.660
 3.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               25.1100  212.903
 4.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               25.1202  212.817
 5.  Marco Andretti     Andretti-Green       25.1379  212.667
 6.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti-Green       25.1729  212.371
 7.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti-Green       25.1947  212.187
 8.  Danica Patrick     Andretti-Green       25.2236  211.944
 9.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision               25.2298  211.892
10.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               25.2504  211.719
11.  Vitor Meira        Panther              25.3317  211.040
12.  Darren Manning     Foyt                 25.3749  210.681
13.  Jay Howard         Roth                 25.3963  210.503
14.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Rahal-Letterman      25.4354  210.180
15.  Marty Roth         Roth                 25.4616  209.963
16.  Justin Wilson      Newman Haas Lanigan  25.5098  209.567
17.  Franck Perera      Conquest             25.5485  209.249
18.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold    25.5509  209.229
19.  Will Power         KV                   25.5704  209.070
20.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    25.6054  208.784
21.  Oriol Servia       KV                   25.6163  208.695
22.  Enrique Bernoldi   Conquest             25.6606  208.335
23.  Ernesto Viso       HVM                  25.7520  207.596
24.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne           25.8475  206.829
25.  Mario Moraes       Dale Coyne           26.3722  202.713