Marco Andretti leads opening Iowa IndyCar practice session
Marco Andretti topped the opening practice session for this weekend's IndyCar Series race at Iowa Speedway
Andretti, who won last year's race at the 7/8th mile oval, set the pace with a best lap of 184.832mph to finish up just ahead of Sarah Fisher Hartman's Josef Newgarden and Bryan Herta Autosport's Alex Tagliani. Ryan Briscoe (Penske) and Scott Dixon (Ganassi) completed the top five.
Times are already significantly quicker than those set last year, with no less than 20 drivers bettering the 2011 pole speed of 180.373mph.
The cars will return to the track for one more practice session later on Friday afternoon to prepare for the evening's heat races, which will set the grid for the race on Saturday.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Marco Andretti Andretti DW12-Chevy 17.4126s 2. Josef Newgarden Fisher DW12-Honda 17.4458s + 0.0332s 3. Alex Tagliani Herta DW12-Honda 17.4743s + 0.0617s 4. Ryan Briscoe Penske DW12-Chevy 17.4795s + 0.0669s 5. Scott Dixon Ganassi DW12-Honda 17.5103s + 0.0977s 6. James Hinchcliffe Andretti DW12-Chevy 17.5117s + 0.0991s 7. Dario Franchitti Ganassi DW12-Honda 17.5203s + 0.1077s 8. Helio Castroneves Penske DW12-Chevy 17.5330s + 0.1204s 9. Will Power Penske DW12-Chevy 17.5350s + 0.1224s 10. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti DW12-Chevy 17.6018s + 0.1892s 11. Tony Kanaan KV DW12-Chevy 17.6426s + 0.2300s 12. Mike Conway Foyt DW12-Honda 17.6509s + 0.2383s 13. EJ Viso KV DW12-Chevy 17.6851s + 0.2725s 14. JR Hildebrand Panther DW12-Chevy 17.6924s + 0.2798s 15. James Jakes Coyne DW12-Honda 17.6985s + 0.2859s 16. Ed Carpenter Carpenter DW12-Chevy 17.7053s + 0.2927s 17. Graham Rahal Ganassi DW12-Honda 17.7348s + 0.3222s 18. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt DW12-Honda 17.7958s + 0.3832s 19. Oriol Servia Panther/DRR DW12-Chevy 17.8145s + 0.4019s 20. Katherine Legge Dragon DW12-Chevy 17.8342s + 0.4216s 21. Charlie Kimball Ganassi DW12-Honda 17.8782s + 0.4656s 22. Justin Wilson Coyne DW12-Honda 17.9324s + 0.5198s 23. Takuma Sato Rahal DW12-Honda 17.9722s + 0.5596s 24. Rubens Barrichello KV DW12-Chevy 18.0808s + 0.6682s 25. Simona de Silvestro HVM DW12-Lotus 18.7022s + 1.2896s
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