Castroneves tops morning practice

The Penske driver beat championship leader Scott Dixon (Ganassi) to the fastest time by 0.1632 seconds.

Penske actually proved more dominant in the session than the timesheets suggested. As usual the field was split into two groups for the session, and those in group one found their tyres struggling for grip on a track still covered in rubber from yesterday's American Le Mans Series qualifying.

Castroneves' teammate Ryan Briscoe headed Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green) in group one, but with the rest of the field benefiting from superior track conditions, that left them ninth and 11th respectively on combined times.

Having been quick on morning practice yesterday, AGR's rookie Hideki Mutoh continued to impress with third place, ahead of another excellent effort from Dreyer & Reinbold's Buddy Rice - although the American conceded that group one's track cleaning efforts had flattered his pace slightly.

Oriol Servia (KV) and Bruno Junqueira (Dale Coyne Racing) completed the combined top six.

EJ Viso's eventual 13th place in the times was a misleading result for the now fully healthy HVM driver, as he had been a highly competitive fourth in group one, despite twice spinning and stalling in the final corners.

Yesterday's pace-setter Marco Andretti (AGR) was classified down in 14th, but was another group one driver and had been fastest for much of his session.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time
 1.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               1:07.5433
 2.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              1:07.7065  + 0.1632
 3.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       1:07.9641  + 0.4208
 4.  Buddy Rice         Dreyer & Reinbold    1:08.1082  + 0.5649
 5.  Oriol Servia       KV                   1:08.1350  + 0.5917
 6.  Bruno Junqueira    Dale Coyne           1:08.2667  + 0.7234
 7.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       1:08.3930  + 0.8497
 8.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1:08.5528  + 1.0095
 9.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               1:08.7017  + 1.1584
10.  Enrique Bernoldi   Conquest             1:08.9295  + 1.3862
11.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       1:08.9476  + 1.4043
12.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Rahal Letterman      1:08.9484  + 1.4051
13.  EJ Viso            HVM                  1:08.9618  + 1.4185
14.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       1:08.9681  + 1.4248
15.  Dan Wheldon        Ganassi              1:09.0692  + 1.5259
16.  Mario Dominguez    Pacific Coast        1:09.0909  + 1.5476
17.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               1:09.1013  + 1.5580
18.  Will Power         KV                   1:09.5458  + 2.0025
19.  Justin Wilson      Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1:09.7126  + 2.1693
20.  Vitor Meira        Panther              1:09.7648  + 2.2215
21.  Mario Moraes       Dale Coyne           1:10.6244  + 3.0811
22.  AJ Foyt IV         Vision               1:10.9175  + 3.3742
23.  Darren Manning     Foyt                 1:11.3633  + 3.8200
24.  Marty Roth         Roth                 1:11.7027  + 4.1594
25.  Jaime Camara       Conquest             1:12.0252  + 4.4819
26.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    1:13.6887  + 6.1454