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St Petersburg IndyCar: James Hinchcliffe tops first practice of '14

James Hinchcliffe opened the 2014 IndyCar season by setting the fastest time in the first practice session for this weekend's curtain-raiser at St Petersburg

The Canadian, who won at the Florida street circuit last year, moved to the top of the times midway through the session with a 1m02.9326s effort, and his time remained unbeaten to the end.

Hinchcliffe's result spearheaded a 1-2-3 for Honda's new twin-turbo unit, with Justin Wilson finishing the session second fastest, and Takuma Sato in third.

Fourth fastest, and quickest of the Chevy-powered drivers, was Will Power, although all four drivers were covered by just over 0.1.s

"The session went really well, although it's obviously early in the weekend," Hinchcliffe said.

"The track is pretty green, and a lot of guys still have things to come. But hopefully this puts us into a good position for the rest of the weekend."

Juan Pablo Montoya's first taste of a street circuit in six years ended with the Colombian with the 14th fastest lap, putting him just behind reigning series champion Scott Dixon.

The Kiwi's new team-mate Tony Kanaan finished the session four places ahead in 10th.

The session was interrupted by a single, brief red flag when KV's Sebastien Bourdais spun and stalled at Turn 4. Bourdais' car was undamaged, and the Frenchman went onto finish up fifth fastest.


Pos Driver               Team/Engine       Time        Gap      Laps
 1. James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Honda    1m02.9326s            14
 2. Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda       1m02.9385s  +0.0059s  17
 3. Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda        1m03.0603s  +0.1277s  18
 4. Will Power           Penske/Chevy      1m03.1932s  +0.2606s  20
 5. Sebastien Bourdais   KV/Chevy          1m03.1948s  +0.2622s  18
 6. Ryan Briscoe         Ganassi/Chevy     1m03.2067s  +0.2741s  14
 7. Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Honda    1m03.2684s  +0.3358s  14
 8. Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda     1m03.3087s  +0.3761s  17
 9. Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda       1m03.3254s  +0.3928s  20
10. Tony Kanaan          Ganassi/Chevy     1m03.3258s  +0.3932s  14
11. Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy      1m03.3998s  +0.4672s  17
12. Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda      1m03.4827s  +0.5501s  18
13. Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Chevy     1m03.6425s  +0.7099s  17
14. Juan Pablo Montoya   Penske/Chevy      1m03.6759s  +0.7433s  22
15. Carlos Munoz         Andretti/Honda    1m03.6948s  +0.7622s  20
16. Mike Conway          Carpenter/Chevy   1m03.7559s  +0.8233s  18
17. Marco Andretti       Andretti/Honda    1m03.7807s  +0.8481s  14
18. Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Chevy     1m03.9023s  +0.9697s  13
19. Jack Hawksworth      Herta/Honda       1m04.0541s  +1.1215s  19
20. Mikhail Aleshin      Schmidt/Honda     1m04.1986s  +1.2660s  21
21. Sebastian Saavedra   KV/Chevy          1m04.6781s  +1.7455s  17
22. Carlos Huertas       Coyne/Honda       1m07.7706s  +4.8380s   6

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