Wilson beats Power in third practice

KV Racing driver Power had dominated Friday practice, ending the opening day over a second clear of the field, but he couldn't quite match Wilson's 1:34.5072 in this morning's session, although he did reduce the Briton's initial half a second advantage to just 0.1451 seconds.

Scott Dixon beat his Ganassi teammate Dario Franchitti to third in the closing minutes, but then spun and stalled on the exit of Turn 3 on his next lap, as rain started to fall in the final seconds of the session.

Helio Castroneves completed the top five for Penske, ahead of Rahal Letterman's Ryan Hunter-Reay, who had been quickest in the first group to run during this split session. The rest of the top ten was filled with group A drivers, as Ryan Briscoe (Penske), Oriol Servia (KV), Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas/Lanigan) and Alex Tagliani (Conquest) followed Hunter-Reay in the opening half-hour.

Andretti Green Racing had a difficult morning, with Tony Kanaan and Hideki Mutoh their leading representatives in 14th and 15th, and Marco Andretti and Danica Patrick still struggling to get to grips with the Australian street track in 21st and 23rd places.

Dan Wheldon has also had a tough time getting up to speed at Surfers and was 18th, one place behind Vitor Meira, the man he supplanted at Panther Racing. The Brazilian, now racing for AJ Foyt, caused a brief stoppage in the first group session after nudging into the Turn 9 barrier.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time
 1.  Justin Wilson      Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1:34.5072
 2.  Will Power         KV                   1:34.6523  + 0.1451
 3.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              1:35.0784  + 0.5712
 4.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi              1:35.1053  + 0.5981
 5.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               1:35.7208  + 1.2136
 6.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Rahal Letterman      1:35.8260  + 1.3188
 7.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               1:36.0483  + 1.5411
 8.  Oriol Servia       KV                   1:36.1073  + 1.6001
 9.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1:36.2337  + 1.7265
10.  Alex Tagliani      Conquest             1:36.5997  + 2.0925
11.  EJ Viso            HVM                  1:36.6073  + 2.1001
12.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne           1:36.7597  + 2.2525
13.  Mario Moraes       Dale Coyne           1:36.9109  + 2.4037
14.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       1:37.0313  + 2.5241
15.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       1:37.7170  + 3.2098
16.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision               1:38.2213  + 3.7141
17.  Vitor Meira        Foyt                 1:38.4132  + 3.9060
18.  Dan Wheldon        Panther              1:38.6506  + 4.1434
19.  Jaime Camara       Conquest             1:39.0564  + 4.5492
20.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               1:39.2413  + 4.7341
21.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       1:39.3099  + 4.8027
22.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold    1:39.3450  + 4.8468
23.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       1:39.8326  + 5.3254
24.  Townsend Bell      Dreyer & Reinbold    1:41.0120  + 6.5048