Rahal sets pace in Mid-Ohio practice
Graham Rahal set the pace in first practice for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio as the Ganassi driver went fastest on the final lap of the session
The 22-year-old local driver's time of 1m09.603s was some way short of the expected pace (Will Power's pole lap last year was a 1m07.120s) and several drivers commented on the gripless nature of the dusty, unrubbered track. But Rahal's time was still nearly half a second quicker than next man up EJ Viso.
Rahal was lucky to be in a position to set that time at all, having had to take avoiding action when he encountered Tony Kanaan's KV Racing machine moving across the track on the back straight - the Ganassi car took to the grass momentarily.
Dario Franchitti, who moments before Rahal and Viso posted times had been fastest, was third quickest ahead of championship rival Will Power.
Justin Wilson meanwhile, who had been quickest for much of the session in newly-liveried Dreyer & Reinbold car, tumbled down the order to fifth in that final dash.
James Hinchcliffe was another to lose out in the final moments, having been up the sharp end right from the very beginning of the 75-minute session - which was restricted to just rookies and those outside the top ten in the standings for the first 45 minutes. He ended up an impressive sixth fastest in the fastest of the Newman/Haas cars.
Edmonton pole-sitter Takuma Sato was forced to sit out much of the session following an engine failure on his KV Racing machine, while Marco Andretti's car spent much of his session in the garage. Neither man figured in the times.
Other incidents included an off for Sebastian Saavedra at Turn 2 which saw him beach his Conquest car in the gravel and spin for Ryan Briscoe on entry to Turn 6.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Graham Rahal Ganassi 1m09.6031s 2. EJ Viso KV 1m09.6522s + 0.0491s 3. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 1m09.6936s + 0.0905s 4. Will Power Penske 1m09.7198s + 0.1167s 5. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 1m09.7912s + 0.1881s 6. James Hinchcliffe Newman/Haas 1m09.8138s + 0.2107s 7. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1m09.9713s + 0.3682s 8. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 1m10.0505s + 0.4474s 9. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1m10.1394s + 0.5363s 10. Helio Castroneves Penske 1m10.2027s + 0.5996s 11. Simona de Silvestro HVM 1m10.3522s + 0.7491s 12. Vitor Meira Foyt 1m10.3599s + 0.7568s 13. Tony Kanaan KV 1m10.3686s + 0.7655s 14. Alex Tagliani Sam Schmidt 1m10.3718s + 0.7687s 15. James Jakes Dale Coyne 1m10.4045s + 0.8014s 16. JR Hildebrand Panther 1m10.5981s + 0.9950s 17. Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne 1m10.7947s + 1.1916s 18. Charlie Kimball Ganassi 1m11.0650s + 1.4619s 19. Martin Plowman Sam Schmidt 1m11.1767s + 1.5736s 20. Mike Conway Andretti 1m11.4336s + 1.8305s 21. Sebastian Saavedra Conquest 1m11.5791s + 1.9760s 22. Danica Patrick Andretti 1m11.6077s + 2.0046s 23. Oriol Servia Newman/Haas 1m11.6317s + 2.0286s 24. Ana Beatriz Dreyer & Reinbold 1m12.0141s + 2.4110s 25. Ed Carpenter Sarah Fisher 1m13.4975s + 3.8944s 26. Marco Andretti Andretti 1m14.1995s + 4.5964s 27. Takuma Sato KV 1m15.0390s + 5.4359s
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