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Power fastest in opening practice

Sao Paulo race winner Will Power picked up where he left off by topping the opening practice session for round two of the IndyCar Series in St Petersburg

The Penske driver finally hit the front in the closing minutes with a 1m03.6741s, after a frenetic session that saw all three Penske entries, both Ganassi drivers, Andretti Autosport's Tony Kanaan and Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson all take turns at the head of the order.

Dario Franchitti ended up second for Ganassi, just 0.032 seconds behind Power, ahead of Penske's Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan's Hideki Mutoh was quick throughout the hour and eventually ended up fifth. Kanaan, Scott Dixon (Ganassi) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti) filled the rest of the top eight, followed by Wilson.

Takuma Sato completed more laps than most as he learned the track. Running in Lotus colours for the first time, the KV driver ultimately ended up 10th.

Graham Rahal had a promising first official appearance with Sarah Fisher Racing, where he will drive for the next two races. The American was in the top ten for most of the session, although he was pushed back to 11th late on.

The morning passed without major incident. Andretti Autosport's Danica Patrick and KV's EJ Viso both lost a little track time with throttle and gearbox issues respectively, but the field avoided the barriers at the Florida street track.

Pos  Driver               Team                    Time        Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske                  1m03.6741s
 2.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi                 1m03.6503s  + 0.0032s
 3.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske                  1m03.7836s  + 0.1364s
 4.  Helio Castroneves    Penske                  1m03.8211s  + 0.1739s
 5.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas/Lanigan     1m04.0107s  + 0.3635s
 6.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti                1m04.0742s  + 0.4271s
 7.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi                 1m04.1544s  + 0.5073s
 8.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti                1m04.2322s  + 0.5850s
 9.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold       1m04.4940s  + 0.8468s
10.  Takuma Sato          KV                      1m04.6610s  + 1.0138s
11.  Graham Rahal         Sarah Fisher            1m04.7353s  + 1.0882s
12.  Marco Andretti       Andretti                1m04.7539s  + 1.1067s
13.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt                   1m04.7850s  + 1.1378s
14.  Dan Wheldon          Panther                 1m04.8431s  + 1.1959s
15.  Mike Conway          Dreyer & Reinbold       1m04.9805s  + 1.3333s
16.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne              1m05.0150s  + 1.3678s
17.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                    1m04.1766s  + 1.5294s
18.  Danica Patrick       Andretti                1m05.1766s  + 1.5294s
19.  EJ Viso              KV                      1m05.1938s  + 1.5466s
20.  Mario Romancini      Conquest                1m05.2431s  + 1.5959s
21.  Raphael Matos        de Ferran/Luczo Dragon  1m05.3003s  + 1.6531s
22.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                     1m05.4216s  + 1.7744s
23.  Mario Moraes         KV                      1m05.5911s  + 1.9439s
24.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne              1m11.7450s  + 8.0978s

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