Power leads practice at Indy

Sam Schmidt Motorsports driver Tagliani led the way going into the closing stages, before Power (Penske) put in a lap at 39.5121s and 227.778mph with just 12 minutes of the six-hour session to go to snatch the top spot.

It was a productive day for both the Penske and Schmidt teams, with Power's team-mates Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves third and fourth, ahead of Tagliani's team-mate Townsend Bell.

Ganassi's lead runner Scott Dixon was back in eighth, behind top rookie JR Hildebrand (Panther) and Newman/Haas' Oriol Servia.

Ed Carpenter continued to show strong form for Sarah Fisher Racing in ninth, ahead of Danica Patrick in the best of the Andretti Autosport cars.

The session was interrupted early on by a frightening crash for Simona de Silvestro, whose HVM car crashed heavily at Turn 3, landing upside down and catching fire. De Silvestro was taken to hospital for treatment to burns on her hands.

The field has one more six-hour practice session this afternoon before qualifying for all 33 grid places takes place across the weekend.

Pos  Driver               Team                     Time      Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske                   39.5121s
 2.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt              39.5340s  + 0.0219s
 3.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske                   39.6097s  + 0.0976s
 4.  Helio Castroneves    Penske                   39.6604s  + 0.1483s
 5.  Townsend Bell        Sam Schmidt              39.6928s  + 0.1807s
 6.  JR Hildebrand        Panther                  39.7303s  + 0.2182s
 7.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas              39.7401s  + 0.2280s
 8.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi                  39.7434s  + 0.2313s
 9.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher             39.7569s  + 0.2448s
10.  Danica Patrick       Andretti                 39.7760s  + 0.2639s
11.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi                  39.7980s  + 0.2859s
12.  Paul Tracy           Dreyer & Reinbold        39.8396s  + 0.3275s
13.  Tony Kanaan          KV                       39.8579s  + 0.3458s
14.  Dan Wheldon          Herta                    39.8731s  + 0.3610s
15.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold        39.8851s  + 0.3730s
16.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi                  39.8930s  + 0.3809s
17.  Jay Howard           Schmidt/Rahal            39.8946s  + 0.3825s
18.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                     39.9202s  + 0.4081s
19.  Takuma Sato          KV                       39.9453s  + 0.4332s
20.  Buddy Rice           Panther                  39.9673s  + 0.4552s
21.  Pippa Mann           Conquest                 39.9836s  + 0.4715s
22.  Marco Andretti       Andretti                 40.0081s  + 0.4960s
23.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti                 40.0226s  + 0.5105s
24.  John Andretti        Petty/Andretti           40.0562s  + 0.5441s
25.  Bruno Junqueira      Foyt                     40.0634s  + 0.5513s
26.  Tomas Scheckter      KV/SH                    40.0656s  + 0.5535s
27.  Bertrand Baguette    Rahal Letterman Lanigan  40.0682s  + 0.5561s
28.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne               40.0846s  + 0.5725s
29.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi                  40.1011s  + 0.5890s
30.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas              40.1190s  + 0.6069s
31.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold        40.1566s  + 0.6445s
32.  EJ Viso              KV                       40.1686s  + 0.6565s
33.  Davey Hamilton       Dreyer & Reinbold        40.1985s  + 0.6864s
34.  Raphael Matos        AFS                      40.2957s  + 0.7836s
35.  Ho-Pin Tung          Schmidt/Dragon           40.2959s  + 0.7838s
36.  Mike Conway          Andretti                 40.4750s  + 0.9629s
37.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                      40.5055s  + 0.9934s
38.  Scott Speed          Dragon                   40.5083s  + 0.9962s
39.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest                 40.6747s  + 1.1626s
40.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne               40.7776s  + 1.2655s