Will Power tops opening IndyCar practice at Barber

Light rain fell as the session was ending, but it had little impact on the final standings. The Penske driver went to the top of the screens just after the hour-long session passed its half-way mark with a 1m11.2886s lap of the Alabama circuit, putting him 0.2s clear of team-mate Helio Castroneves.

Takuma Sato repeated his encouraging pace from St Petersburg by setting the third-fastest time in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan entry, just beating Sarah Fisher Hartman rookie Josef Newgarden, who had been the pacesetter for the opening half hour.

Rubens Barrichello was fifth quickest as he continued to adapt to his new surroundings after 19 years in Formula 1, putting him just ahead of Andretti Autosport's Marco Andretti and the Brazilian's KV Racing team-mate Tony Kanaan.

Simon Pagenaud (Schmidt-Hamilton), Dario Franchitti (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Graham Rahal (Chip Ganassi Racing) rounded out the top 10.

Sebastien Bourdais was again the best of the Lotus-powered entries; the four-time Champ Car champion finishing up 16th-fastest with Dragon Racing.

Dale Coyne Racing's Justin Wilson's start to the weekend was interrupted when a small fire ignited in the engine area of his car after the Brit had completed just three laps.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                      Time        Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske DW12-Chevrolet         1m11.2886s
 2.  Helio Castroneves    Penske DW12-Chevrolet         1m11.5010s  + 0.2124s
 3.  Takuma Sato          Rahal DW12-Honda              1m11.5608s  + 0.2722s
 4.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher DW12-Honda             1m11.5884s  + 0.2998s
 5.  Rubens Barrichello   KV DW12-Chevrolet             1m11.6028s  + 0.3142s
 6.  Marco Andretti       Andretti DW12-Chevrolet       1m11.6263s  + 0.3377s
 7.  Tony Kanaan          KV DW12-Chevrolet             1m11.6800s  + 0.3914s
 8.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt DW12-Honda            1m11.7015s  + 0.4129s
 9.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi DW12-Honda            1m11.7415s  + 0.4529s
10.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi DW12-Honda            1m11.9529s  + 0.6643s
11.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti DW12-Chevrolet       1m12.0320s  + 0.7434s
12.  JR Hildebrand        Panther DW12-Chevrolet        1m12.0564s  + 0.7678s
13.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi DW12-Honda            1m12.0826s  + 0.7940s
14.  Mike Conway          Foyt DW12-Honda               1m12.1934s  + 0.9048s
15.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske DW12-Chevrolet         1m12.2151s  + 0.9265s
16.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon DW12-Lotus             1m12.4818s  + 1.1932s
17.  James Jakes          Coyne DW12-Honda              1m12.5018s  + 1.2132s
18.  EJ Viso              KV DW12-Chevrolet             1m12.5042s  + 1.2156s
19.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti DW12-Chevrolet       1m12.6237s  + 1.3351s
20.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM DW12-Lotus                1m12.7388s  + 1.4502s
21.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi DW12-Honda            1m13.0897s  + 1.8011s
22.  Alex Tagliani        BHA DW12-Lotus                1m13.4746s  + 2.1860s
23.  Oriol Servia         Dreyer & Reinbold DW12-Lotus  1m13.4960s  + 2.2074s
24.  Justin Wilson        Coyne DW12-Honda              1m13.9034s  + 2.6148s
25.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter DW12-Chevrolet      1m14.5717s  + 3.2831s
26.  Katherine Legge      Dragon DW12-Lotus             1m16.3147s  + 5.0261s