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Local star James Hinchcliffe stars in first Edmonton IndyCar practice

Local favourite James Hinchcliffe was quickest in the opening free practice session at the new-style Edmonton circuit

The Canadian airport track has been substantially revised over the winter, but the IndyCar field did not get any chance to try it on Friday as heavy rain left the circuit flooded.

That led to a compacted schedule with two practice sessions and qualifying fitted into Saturday.

With the track still not absolutely dry and gaining grip, times tumbled and positions were repeatedly exchanged throughout this morning's 45-minute session.

Going into the closing moments, championship leader Dario Franchitti and his team-mate Scott Dixon had looked set for a Ganassi one-two.

But then Newman/Haas' rookie Hinchcliffe, who had started the day by causing a yellow when he spun and stalled, jumped to the top on his final lap with a 1m19.9036s.

That put him 0.0986 seconds ahead of Franchitti, with Will Power taking third for Penske and pushing Dixon down to fourth.

The other Penske entries of Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves were fifth and eighth, split by KV's EJ Viso and Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson. Tony Kanaan (KV) and the impressive Vitor Meira (AJ Foyt) completed the top 10.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap
 1.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas        1m19.9036s
 2.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m20.0022s  + 0.0986s
 3.  Will Power           Penske             1m20.0186s  + 0.1150s
 4.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m20.0362s  + 0.1326s
 5.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m20.0489s  + 0.1453s
 6.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m20.0915s  + 0.1879s
 7.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m20.1213s  + 0.2177s
 8.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m20.1293s  + 0.2257s
 9.  Tony Kanaan          KV                 1m20.2532s  + 0.3496s
10.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m20.2837s  + 0.3801s
11.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi            1m20.2857s  + 0.3821s
12.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m20.2867s  + 0.3831s
13.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas        1m20.3667s  + 0.4631s
14.  JR Hildebrand        Panther            1m20.3686s  + 0.4650s
15.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m20.3973s  + 0.4937s
16.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne         1m20.5368s  + 0.6332s
17.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt        1m20.5617s  + 0.6581s
18.  Mike Conway          Andretti           1m20.6309s  + 0.7273s
19.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m21.0095s  + 1.1059s
20.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m21.2531s  + 1.3495s
21.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi            1m21.3225s  + 1.4189s
22.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           1m21.4138s  + 1.5102s
23.  Paul Tracy           Dragon             1m21.6754s  + 1.7718s
24.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne         1m21.7173s  + 1.8137s
25.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  1m22.1572s  + 2.2536s
26.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m22.1910s  + 2.2874s

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