Dario Franchitti leads opening IndyCar practice in Toronto
Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) was quickest in the opening free practice session in Toronto ahead of the IndyCar Series' return to street racing this weekend
The reigning champion put in a 1m01.568s lap right at the end of the morning to edge out Penske's Helio Castroneves by 0.0640 seconds.
The extremely close session saw four different teams in the top four, as Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay and Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson followed Franchitti and Castroneves. Wilson had been fastest in the opening 45 minutes, which were reserved for drivers outside the top 10 in the championship.
Will Power (Penske) and Scott Dixon (Ganassi) also had spells on top before ending up fifth and sixth, ahead of top Canadian Alex Tagliani in the Sam Schmidt car.
KV's Takuma Sato and Tony Kanaan were next up, followed by Mike Conway's Andretti car. The other Canadians in the entry - Newman/Haas driver James Hinchcliffe and Paul Tracy in the Dragon car - were 11th and 12th.
The session passed without significant incident and no full course yellows, with misdemeanours confirmed to trips down the escape road by various drivers.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 1m01.5676s 2. Helio Castroneves Penske 1m01.6316s + 0.0640s 3. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 1m01.6644s + 0.0968s 4. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 1m01.7324s + 0.1648s 5. Will Power Penske 1m01.7912s + 0.2236s 6. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1m01.7959s + 0.2283s 7. Alex Tagliani Sam Schmidt 1m01.8075s + 0.2399s 8. Takuma Sato KV 1m01.8788s + 0.3112s 9. Tony Kanaan KV 1m01.8908s + 0.3232s 10. Mike Conway Andretti 1m01.9237s + 0.3561s 11. James Hinchcliffe Newman/Haas 1m01.9715s + 0.4039s 12. Paul Tracy Dragon 1m02.0474s + 0.4798s 13. Oriol Servià Newman/Haas 1m02.0704s + 0.5028s 14. JR Hildebrand Panther 1m02.3213s + 0.7537s 15. Charlie Kimball Ganassi 1m02.3430s + 0.7754s 16. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1m02.3509s + 0.7833s 17. Graham Rahal Ganassi 1m02.5445s + 0.9769s 18. Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne 1m02.7612s + 1.1936s 19. EJ Viso KV 1m02.7775s + 1.2099s 20. Marco Andretti Andretti 1m03.1526s + 1.5850s 21. Danica Patrick Andretti 1m03.2199s + 1.6523s 22. Vitor Meira Foyt 1m03.3931s + 1.8255s 23. Simona de Silvestro HVM 1m03.5620s + 1.9944s 24. James Jakes Dale Coyne 1m03.5886s + 2.0210s 25. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold 1m03.7243s + 2.1567s 26. Sebastian Saavedra Conquest 1m04.3536s + 2.7860s
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