Dario Franchitti tops opening IndyCar practice session at Sears Point

Dario Franchitti topped the opening IndyCar practice session for this weekend's round at Sears Point.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver managed a best time of 1m19.427s around the California road course, putting him just 0.136s ahead of his chief title rival Will Power.

The early part of the session had been dominated by Power's Penske team-mate Helio Castroneves, who quickly established himself at the head of the first group of cars to go out. But his hold on the top spot only lasted until the quicker cars took to the track with half an hour remaining; Power immediately moving to the top of the timesheets before being overhauled by Franchitti a few minutes before the end.

Franchitti credited the performance with gains that the team found in testing at the track last week.

"The chance to test was invaluable for us, because the car was pretty bad [at the test]," he said.

"That allowed us to make some big changes, and for me to understand more what I needed to do, driving the car. I'm a lot happier with the car than I was at the test. We'll have to improve the car because the track is going to change, but it was a good start today."

Giorgio Pantano's return to the series got off to a promising start; the 2008 GP2 champion going fifth quickest in the Dreyer & Reinbold entry that he is driving in place of the injured Justin Wilson.

His fellow ex-GP2 racer Ho-Pin Tung began his weekend by going 17th quickest for Dragon Racing.

Meanwhile, Alex Tagliani's afternoon was cut short when he lost control of his Sam Schmidt Motorsports car at the exit of Turn 3 and hit the barriers after completing just seven laps.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m19.427s
 2.  Will Power           Penske             1m19.563s  + 0.163s
 3.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m19.664s  + 0.237s
 4.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m20.042s  + 0.615s
 5.  Giorgio Pantano      Dreyer & Reinbold  1m20.129s  + 0.702s
 6.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne         1m20.228s  + 0.801s
 7.  Ana Beatriz          Sam Schmidt        1m20.251s  + 0.824s
 8.  Ernesto Viso         KV                 1m20.348s  + 0.919s
 9.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas        1m20.386s  + 0.932s
10.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne         1m20.421s  + 0.994s
11.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas        1m20.423s  + 0.996s
12.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m20.564s  + 1.137s
13.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi            1m20.630s  + 1.203s
14.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi            1m20.633s  + 1.206s
15.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m20.671s  + 1.244s
16.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m20.695s  + 1.268s
17.  Ho-Pin Tung          Sam Schmidt Dragon 1m20.719s  + 1.292s
18.  Mike Conway          Andretti           1m20.724s  + 1.297s
19.  JR Hildebrand        Panther            1m20.741s  + 1.314s
20.  Martin Plowman       AFS/Sam Schmidt    1m20.787s  + 1.360s
21.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt        1m20.849s  + 1.421s
22.  Tony Kanaan          KV                 1m20.852s  + 1.424s
23.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m20.920s  + 1.494s
24.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           1m20.973s  + 1.546s
25.  Simon Pagenaud       HVM                1m21.609s  + 2.182s
26.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m21.634s  + 2.207s
27.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m21.723s  + 2.297s
28.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher       1m23.305s  + 3.878s