Power tops extra practice session
Will Power was quickest in the additional practice session held in place of IndyCar qualifying in Sao Paulo this afternoon
Concerns over the extreme bumps and slippery surface on the brand new street track's concrete front straight led to the organisers' decision to postpone today's scheduled qualifying session until 8.30am local time tomorrow morning.
Instead an hour-long practice session was run to give the teams more track time, and Power emerged on top for Penske ahead of Andretti duo Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Justin Wilson showed his best form of the day for new team Dreyer & Reinbold to take fourth. Ganassi duo Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon were fifth and seventh, split by Luczo Dragon/de Ferran's Raphael Matos, while Alex Tagliani kept the new Fazzt team among the frontrunners in eighth.
The track surface continued to cause problems during the short session, with Mario Moraes having a heavy impact into the pits straight wall in his KV car. Dale Coyne Racing's Milka Duno also had a couple of incidents.
Diamond grinding equipment will now be used on the track this evening in an effort to resolve the issues in time for qualifying and the race tomorrow. Sunday's revised schedule currently sees a short warm-up session to evaluate the repair at 8am, with qualifying following straight afterwards.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Will Power Penske 1m31.2980s 2. Tony Kanaan Andretti 1m31.3403s + 0.0423s 3. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 1m31.3858s + 0.0878s 4. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 1m31.5380s + 0.2400s 5. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 1m31.5788s + 0.2808s 6. Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon/de Ferran 1m31.5930s + 0.2950s 7. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1m31.6062s + 0.3082s 8. Alex Tagliani Fazzt 1m31.6969s + 0.3989s 9. Marco Andretti Andretti 1m31.8503s + 0.5523s 10. Helio Castroneves Penske 1m31.8565s + 0.5585s 11. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1m31.9878s + 0.6898s 12. Danica Patrick Andretti 1m32.1665s + 0.8685s 13. EJ Viso KV 1m32.2136s + 0.9156s 14. Dan Wheldon Panther 1m32.2469s + 0.9489s 15. Vitor Meira Foyt 1m32.6553s + 1.3573s 16. Simona de Silvestro HVM 1m32.6710s + 1.3730s 17. Takuma Sato KV 1m33.0667s + 1.7687s 18. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 1m33.1112s + 1.8132s 19. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold 1m33.1460s + 1.8480s 20. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1m33.1872s + 1.8892s 21. Mario Moraes KV 1m33.7353s + 2.4373s 22. Mario Romancini Conquest 1m36.2038s + 4.9058s 23. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold 1m38.7247s + 7.4267s 24. Milka Duno Dale Coyne 1m39.5075s + 8.2095s
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