Briscoe leads first Chicago practice

The Penske driver's 25.1154s lap in the closing moments saw him depose previous pacesetter Scott Dixon (Ganassi).

Championship leader Will Power was third for Penske, ahead of Andretti Autosport's four cars, led by Marco Andretti. Both Andretti and team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay (who was sixth in between Danica Patrick and Tony Kanaan) had led the session at times earlier.

Penske's other driver Helio Castroneves was eighth, with Dixon's Ganassi team-mate Dario Franchitti back in 10th. They were split by a strong run from KV's EJ Viso.

Of the drivers returning to the series this weekend, Tomas Scheckter was 17th for Conquest, while Mike Conway's latest substitute Ana Beatriz took 22nd in her Dreyer & Reinbold car, and Davey Hamilton was 27th for De Ferran Dragon.

But Vision/Panther Racing's Ed Carpenter will go into qualifying later today with scant preparation having brushed the wall and caused a yellow on only his fifth lap of the session, leaving him in the pits thereafter.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time      Gap
 1.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             25.1154s
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            25.2650s  + 0.1496s
 3.  Will Power           Penske             25.2716s  + 0.1562s
 4.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           25.2801s  + 0.1647s
 5.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           25.2812s  + 0.1658s
 6.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           25.2902s  + 0.1748s
 7.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           25.3075s  + 0.1921s
 8.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             25.3084s  + 0.1930s
 9.  EJ Viso              KV                 25.3100s  + 0.1946s
10.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            25.3106s  + 0.1952s
11.  Graham Rahal         Newman/Haas        25.3471s  + 0.2317s
12.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            25.3768s  + 0.2614s
13.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         25.3893s  + 0.2739s
14.  Vitor Meira          AJ Foyt            25.4334s  + 0.3180s
15.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           25.4653s  + 0.3499s
16.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        25.4892s  + 0.3738s
17.  Tomas Scheckter      Conquest           25.4952s  + 0.3798s
18.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  25.5017s  + 0.3863s
19.  Takuma Sato          KV                 25.5017s  + 0.3863s
20.  Mario Moraes         KV                 25.5076s  + 0.3922s
21.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   25.5308s  + 0.4154s
22.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  25.5323s  + 0.4169s
23.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                25.5528s  + 0.4374s
24.  Alex Tagliani        FAZZT              25.5573s  + 0.4419s
25.  Jay Howard           Sarah Fisher       25.5854s  + 0.4700s
26.  Sarah Fisher         Sarah Fisher       25.6063s  + 0.4909s
27.  Davey Hamilton       De Ferran Dragon   25.6302s  + 0.5148s
28.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         25.8269s  + 0.7115s
29.  Ed Carpenter         Panther/Vision     29.3971s  + 4.2817s