Power leads second St Pete practice

The Australian, who lost the 2010 title to Dario Franchitti at the final round after leading the championship for most of the year, brushed the wall early on and sustained minor damage to his car.

But a 1m03.3s lap right at the end of the hour thrust Penske driver Power to the top of the order, ahead of Franchitti (Ganassi).

Mike Conway impressed for Andretti Autosport with the third fastest time, ahead of another Penske and Ganassi group: Ryan Briscoe, Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves completing the top six ahead of the next Andretti car of Marco Andretti.

Morning pacesetter Ryan Hunter-Reay was only 17th for Andretti after damaging his suspension in a minor impact with the barriers.

Sebastien Bourdais showed he and Dale Coyne Racing are moving in the right direction by getting up to eighth, while Tony Kanaan also made rapid progress with KV to take ninth.

Andretti's Danica Patrick completed the top 10.

Further back, Sebastian Saavedra was an eye-catching 14th for Conquest Racing, and Raphael Matos ended the first day of AFS Racing's new solo IndyCar programme in 18th.

After causing the morning's only yellow, KV driver EJ Viso was in trouble again this afternoon when he ran wide at the quick chicane near the end of the lap and ended up spinning into the barriers, leaving him 22nd in the order.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske             1m03.3759s
 2.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m03.5180s  + 0.1421s
 3.  Mike Conway          Andretti           1m03.6660s  + 0.2901s
 4.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m03.7214s  + 0.3455s
 5.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m03.8734s  + 0.4975s
 6.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m03.9049s  + 0.5290s
 7.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m04.0400s  + 0.6641s
 8.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne         1m04.0672s  + 0.6913s
 9.  Tony Kanaan          KV                 1m04.0698s  + 0.6939s
10.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m04.1039s  + 0.7280s
11.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m04.1353s  + 0.7594s
12.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas        1m04.1476s  + 0.7717s
13.  Alex Tagliani        Schmidt            1m04.2355s  + 0.8596s
14.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           1m04.2414s  + 0.8655s
15.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m04.2429s  + 0.8670s
16.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi            1m04.3127s  + 0.9368s
17.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m04.3313s  + 0.9554s
18.  Raphael Matos        AFS                1m04.3873s  + 1.0114s
19.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi            1m04.4961s  + 1.1202s
20.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m04.9544s  + 1.5785s
21.  JR Hildebrand        Panther            1m05.0510s  + 1.6751s
22.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m05.0727s  + 1.6968s
23.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m05.1105s  + 1.7346s
24.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne         1m05.6427s  + 2.2668s
25.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  1m05.7036s  + 2.3277s