Long Beach: Kanaan heads topsy-turvy practice

Castroneves was fastest for much of the session in his Team Penske Reynard-Honda, but he encountered traffic in the closing stages. Kanaan, meanwhile, bolted a new set of Firestone tyres onto his Mo Nunn Reynard-Honda and slammed in a lap 0.546 seconds faster than the surprising Servia. Kanaan's best lap was timed at 1m 7.759s (104.559 mph). Servia's best was a 1m08.305s.

"I got only one lap on the new tyres, but you only need one lap," said Kanaan with a grin. "The car was fast out of the box, but what really made the difference was a change that (team mate) Alex (Zanardi) found. It's the first time I've had a team mate since I started racing Champ Cars, and it makes a big difference."

Zanardi's struggles continued as he wound up 22nd fastest in his Reynard. But Kanaan said Zanardi's experience and technical know-how gave him the advantage he needed to set the fastest time.

"Alex tried something completely different on his car in the afternoon and it didn't work," Kanaan stated. "Sometimes that's the way it goes. But my car was better in the afternoon because of what we learned from Alex in the morning."

Servia didn't have a job in January, but the Spaniard continued to impress in his second outing for the new Sigma Autosport team.

"No problems at all," Servia remarked. "The car felt good from the start of the session. It's nice to be up here, but it's much more important to do it on Saturday and Sunday. We're still 0.5 seconds from Tony, and if we don't improve tomorrow, there will be another 15 guys between us."

Defending Long Beach champion Tracy had a fraught day for Team Green, but he put in a flyer at the bell to wind up third. The Canadian downplayed the achievement.

"I was about 30th until the last lap, and (team mate) Dario (Franchitti) went from fourth to 18th in the last five minutes," Tracy said. "You have to be out there and hit the lap at the right time."

Tracy continued to speak positively about Team Green's expanded three-car lineup. He credited his late charge to set-up changes gleaned from team mates Franchitti and Michael Andretti.

"If you walked up and down the pit lane and asked every team if they wanted to look at Michael's telemetry, they would pay any amount to do it," Tracy said. "He's so fast, so experienced and so knowledgeable. I look at his data and at Dario's to see where I can do better. This series is so competitive that you have to constantly search for ways to raise your game. The bar keeps getting raised every session."

Castroneves and his Penske team mate Gil de Ferran (ninth fastest) had their track time in the morning session limited by engine problems.

"We're basically a session behind," said de Ferran, who took the Long Beach pole in 2000 and finished fifth.

Patrick Carpentier took a good fifth ahead of Andretti, Roberto Moreno and Bruno Junqueira. Monterrey winner Cristiano da Matta struggled, however, and wound up 23rd, 1.8s from the top.

Dario Franchitti was 18th and not happy: "The team has tried a few things, but none of them are working," said the Scot. "At the moment, the car is 180 degrees from where I want it."

Qualifying for the jewel in CART's crown takes place at 21:45 BST (13:45 US West Coast) on Saturday, with the race scheduled for 21:00 BST (13:00 West Coast) on Sunday.