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James Hinchcliffe leads Oriol Servia in Newman/Haas one-two in final Motegi IndyCar practice

James Hinchcliffe and Oriol Servia gave Newman/Haas a one-two in the third and final IndyCar free practice session at Motegi

The pair moved into first and second - 0.0339 seconds apart - just before Penske's Ryan Briscoe spun and stalled, causing a stoppage.

There was only time for one more flying lap when the session resumed, and Hinchcliffe chose not to get involved in the mad dash out of the pitlane. Though many drivers improved their times, his 1m39.1074s remained unbeaten and he stayed in first place.

Points leader Dario Franchitti (Ganassi) also stayed in the pits and still hung on to third, with Briscoe remaining fourth despite his spin.

Franchitti's team-mate Scott Dixon had followed up his pacesetting morning performance by leading the way for much of this session too. He ended up fifth, ahead of title contender Will Power (Penske).

Mike Conway produced his best showing of the weekend as he led the Andretti Autosport charge in seventh, followed by Helio Castroneves (Penske), Graham Rahal (Ganassi) and EJ Viso (KV). Local drivers Takuma Sato and Hideki Mutoh were 11th and 20th for KV and AFS/Sam Schmidt respectively.

Having got through practice one and two with no stoppages, the final session saw three, with spins for HVM's Simona de Silvestro and KV's Tony Kanaan also causing brief interruptions before Briscoe's incident.

Alex Tagliani, Joao Paulo de Oliveira, Servia and Viso also had minor excursions during the hour.

Pos  Driver                  Team               Time        Gap
 1.  James Hinchcliffe       Newman/Haas        1m39.1074s
 2.  Oriol Servia            Newman/Haas        1m39.1413s  + 0.0339s
 3.  Dario Franchitti        Ganassi            1m39.3183s  + 0.2109s
 4.  Ryan Briscoe            Penske             1m39.3354s  + 0.2280s
 5.  Scott Dixon             Ganassi            1m39.3486s  + 0.2412s
 6.  Will Power              Penske             1m39.5140s  + 0.4066s
 7.  Mike Conway             Andretti           1m39.5498s  + 0.4424s
 8.  Helio Castroneves       Penske             1m39.5536s  + 0.4462s
 9.  Graham Rahal            Ganassi            1m39.5639s  + 0.4565s
10.  EJ Viso                 KV                 1m39.6098s  + 0.5024s
11.  Takuma Sato             KV                 1m39.6641s  + 0.5567s
12.  JR Hildebrand           Panther            1m39.7141s  + 0.6067s
13.  Ryan Hunter-Reay        Andretti           1m39.7489s  + 0.6415s
14.  Marco Andretti          Andretti           1m39.8275s  + 0.7201s
15.  Charlie Kimball         Ganassi            1m39.8486s  + 0.7412s
16.  James Jakes             Dale Coyne         1m40.0156s  + 0.9082s
17.  Joao Paulo de Oliveira  Conquest           1m40.0576s  + 0.9502s
18.  Sebastien Bourdais      Dale Coyne         1m40.0809s  + 0.9735s
19.  Ana Beatriz             Dreyer & Reinbold  1m40.1550s  + 1.0476s
20.  Hideki Mutoh            AFS/Sam Schmidt    1m40.1907s  + 1.0833s
21.  Alex Tagliani           Sam Schmidt        1m40.2420s  + 1.1346s
22.  Tony Kanaan             KV                 1m40.2927s  + 1.1853s
23.  Giorgio Pantano         Dreyer & Reinbold  1m40.3143s  + 1.2069s
24.  Simona de Silvestro     HVM                1m40.4398s  + 1.3324s
25.  Vitor Meira             Foyt               1m40.6200s  + 1.5126s
26.  Danica Patrick          Andretti           1m40.9025s  + 1.7951s

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