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Castroneves fastest in first practice

Marlboro Team Penske dominated the first practice session at Mid-Ohio

Helio Castroneves set the pace by 0.2s from team-mate Gil de Ferran. The speed of the Penske team's Reynard-Honda's came as no surprise after the duo dominated the recent road course test at Elkhart Lake. The team was also peerless at Portland in June, a venue similar to the Lexington course.

Juan Montoya was third for Ganassi, the Lola-Toyota package now running better on road courses than it did earlier in the season.

Kenny Brack and Chicago winner Cristiano da Matta completed the top five. Series leader Michael Andretti was seventh quickest, narrowly ahead of Dario Franchitti.

Practice times from Lexington:

1 Helio Castroneves Penske Reynard-Honda 1m06.935s
2 Gil de Ferran Penske Reynard-Honda 1m07.107s
3 Juan Montoya Ganassi Lola-Toyota 1m07.482s
4 Kenny Brack Rahal Reynard-Ford 1m07.492s
5 Cristiano da Matta PPI Reynard-Toyota 1m07.829s
6 Max Papis Rahal Reynard-Ford 1m07.901s
7 Michael Andretti Newman-Haas Lola-Ford 1m07.908s
8 Dario Franchitti Green Reynard-Honda 1m07.932s
9 Jimmy Vasser Ganassi Lola-Toyota 1m08.000s
10 Adrian Fernandez Patrick Reynard-Ford 1m08.107s
11 Mark Blundell PacWest Reynard-Mercedes 1m08.167s
12 Tony Kanaan Mo Nunn Reynard-Mercedes 1m08.188s
13 Patrick Carpentier Forsythe Reynard-Ford 1m08.245s
14 Christian Fittipaldi Newman-Haas Lola-Ford 1m08.315s
15 Mauricio Gugelmin PacWest Reynard-Mercedes 1m08.365s
16 Roberto Moreno Patrick Reynard-Ford 1m08.465s
17 Oriol Servia PPI Reynard-Toyota 1m08.629s
18 Memo Gidley Della Penna Reynard-Toyota 1m08.631s
19 Paul Tracy Green Reynard-Honda 1m08.719s
20 Alex Tagliani Forsythe Reynard-Ford 1m08.760s
21 Michel Jourdain Jr Bettenhausen Lola-Mercedes 1m09.501s
22 Luiz Garcia Jr Arciero Project Reynard-Mercedes 1m09.576s
23 Gualter Salles Coyne Lola-Ford 1m09.803s
24 Shinji Nakano Walker Reynard-Honda 1m09.989s
25 Tarso Marques Coyne Swift-Ford 1m10.447s

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