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Kanaan tops practice before rain

Tony Kanaan put Andretti Autosport to the top of the times in Thursday's practice session for the Indianapolis 500, which was cut short by rain

Light showers forced several brief interruptions, and when the rain increased the decision was taken to halt practice two hours earlier than planned.

Prior to the stoppage, Kanaan gave his team its first fastest time of the week with a lap of 39.6870 seconds and 226.775mph, putting him 0.0793s ahead of second fastest man Paul Tracy (KV).

Both men admitted that their best laps came while in the tow - with Tracy's slipstream coming from Kanaan - but the pacesetter was still confident that he is in good shape.

"The car felt good, and although it was in the draft, you have to have a good car to get those kinds of speeds," Kanaan said. "We worked on qualifying today along with a lot of people."

Hideki Mutoh took an impressive third for Newman/Haas, ahead of Kanaan's team-mate Marco Andretti, Panther's Dan Wheldon in fifth and top Penske runner Helio Castroneves in sixth.

Fazzt's Alex Tagliani continued to show great form for his rookie team with eighth place, behind points leader Will Power (Penske) and just ahead of returnee squad Rahal Letterman's Graham Rahal.

Tagliani's intended Indy team-mate Bruno Junqueira has yet to take to the track in Fazzt's car, with the team admitting earlier this week that it has some sponsorship issues, though Junqueira's Dallara-Honda is at the track and prepared ready to run. In the interim, Junqueira took to the speedway today in Sebastian Saavedra's Bryan Herta Autosport car - team boss Herta having invited his former Champ Car rival to assist with getting the Indy Lights graduate squad up to speed.

Ganassi, which had set the pace earlier in the week, did not try qualifying runs before the rain stoppage today so was back in the midfield, while Ryan Hunter-Reay did try qualifying trim in another Andretti entry, but was disappointed to struggle to 23rd while his team-mate led the way. Fellow Andretti runner Danica Patrick was confident she would have vaulted forward from 28th had the session run its full duration.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time      Gap
 1.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           39.6870s
 2.  Paul Tracy           KV                 39.7663s  + 0.0793s
 3.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        39.7826s  + 0.0956s
 4.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           39.8039s  + 0.1169s
 5.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            39.8043s  + 0.1173s
 6.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             39.8089s  + 0.1219s
 7.  Will Power           Penske             39.8520s  + 0.1650s
 8.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt              39.8920s  + 0.2050s
 9.  Graham Rahal         Rahal Letterman    39.9009s  + 0.2139s
10.  Davey Hamilton       de Ferran Dragon   39.9236s  + 0.2366s
11.  Ed Carpenter         Panther/Vision     39.9497s  + 0.2627s
12.  Takuma Sato          KV                 39.9916s  + 0.3046s
13.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            39.9937s  + 0.3067s
14.  Mike Conway          Dreyer & Reinbold  40.0225s  + 0.3355s
15.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                40.0288s  + 0.3418s
16.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             40.0336s  + 0.3466s
17.  Mario Moraes         KV                 40.1222s  + 0.4352s
18.  Raphael Matos        de Ferran Dragon   40.1404s  + 0.4534s
19.  John Andretti        Andretti           40.1459s  + 0.4589s
20.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            40.1487s  + 0.4617s
21.  Jay Howard           Sarah Fisher       40.1785s  + 0.4915s
22.  AJ Foyt IV           Foyt               40.2064s  + 0.5194s
23.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           40.2199s  + 0.5329s
24.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               40.2411s  + 0.5541s
25.  Mario Romancini      Conquest           40.2425s  + 0.5555s
26.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  40.2646s  + 0.5776s
27.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           40.2666s  + 0.5796s
28.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           40.3340s  + 0.6470s
29.  Townsend Bell        Ganassi/Schmidt    40.3799s  + 0.6929s
30.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         40.4279s  + 0.7409s
31.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  40.4587s  + 0.7717s
32.  Bruno Junqueira      Herta              40.4899s  + 0.8029s
33.  Sarah Fisher         Sarah Fisher       40.4906s  + 0.8036s
34.  Tomas Scheckter      Dreyer & Reinbold  40.5162s  + 0.8292s
35.  Sebastian Saavedra   Herta              40.5681s  + 0.8811s
36.  EJ Viso              KV                 40.7947s  + 1.1077s
37.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         41.1066s  + 1.4196s

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