Rockingham finally goes green

The cars eventually took to the track just after 1115 BST for a reconnaissance session to evaluate the all-new oval, which has suffered from seepage problems creating damp patches on the asphalt surface.

The drivers must have a minimum of 90 minutes of running on the track before they can race and the current practice session has been tentatively set at 75 minutes after the 15 minutes of running earlier this morning.

Penske driver Helio Castroneves currently tops the times with a lap of 25.045s at an astounding average speed of 212.593 mph. The Brazilian is followed by Tonny Kanaan in second and Patrick Carpentier in third.

Scotsman Dario Franchitti is currently in 12th place in his Reynard-Honda just over half a second behind Castroneves.

Upon completion of the current session, series organisers CART will then take a decision on a start time for this afternoon's 500 kilometre race. The provisional start time still stands at 1510 BST.

Mauricio Gugelmin hit the wall 20 minutes to the session on the exit of Turn 1 which should be taken flat out when running at speed. The Brazilian ran wide in his Pac West and came to a halt against the wall, but was unhurt. The team is currently preparing the spare car.

Full report at the end of the session.