Briscoe leads first day of Barber test

Penske would have claimed a top three sweep with Briscoe, Helio Castroneves and Will Power but for the efforts of Wilson, who pushed Power back to fourth despite a late crash.

With this week's two days at Barber the only winter group test before the season opener in Brazil, Briscoe was delighted that Penske had proved to be the team to beat.

"It's nice to be at the top of the speed charts," said Briscoe. "It's important because it is our only test before the first race, so we're all comparing times. It's nice to have the Team Penske cars on top. It's a great way to start the year."

Wilson was also pleased to run so strongly on his first appearance with new team Dreyer & Reinbold, despite his accident.

"All in all, I think that it went well and I'm pleased with P3," he said. "I'm getting comfortable in the car and with my new engineer and crew.

"Unfortunately, at the end of the day I just clipped the grass going into Turn 1 and the car snapped around on me. The car isn't too badly damaged and I'm okay."

Ganassi's Scott Dixon and reigning champion Dario Franchitti were fifth and ninth, split by KV duo EK Viso and Takuma Sato, and Tony Kanaan in the best of the Andretti Autosport cars.

While Kanaan felt he made great strides during the test day, some of his team-mates were struggling, with Ryan Hunter-Reay back in 16th as he fine-tuned his set-up on his debut with the team, and Danica Patrick troubled by the weather conditions in 18th.

Newman/Haas/Lanigan's new recruit Hideki Mutoh completed the top ten ahead of Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport) and Conquest's recent signing Mario Romancini.

KV ran a third car for former Honda Formula 1 test driver James Rossiter, with the Briton taking 13th place on his IndyCar debut. Rossiter has been linked to a third race seat with the squad, a plan KV has yet to confirm.

Three of the 2010 IndyCar squads chose to skip the test. Panther's Dan Wheldon is running at Sebring instead due to the cold weather at Barber, while new team FAZZT preferred to continue work at its Indianapolis base having successfully tested earlier in the winter. Dale Coyne Racing also sat out Barber, but ran with JR Hildebrand at Sebring last week.

Twenty drivers took to the track today, with at least one more expected to join in tomorrow when former Indy Lights champion Jay Howard takes a turn in Sarah Fisher's car. The pair are alternating in the Sarah Fisher Racing seat this year.

Pos  Driver               Team                    Time        Gap
 1.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske                  1m10.5052s
 2.  Helio Castroneves    Penske                  1m10.7146s  + 0.2094s
 3.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold       1m10.7397s  + 0.2345s
 4.  Will Power           Penske                  1m10.7637s  + 0.2585s
 5.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi                 1m10.8927s  + 0.3875s
 6.  EJ Viso              KV                      1m10.9186s  + 0.4134s
 7.  Takuma Sato          KV                      1m11.1138s  + 0.6086s
 8.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti                1m11.1433s  + 0.6381s
 9.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi                 1m11.1825s  + 0.6773s
10.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas/Lanigan     1m11.2212s  + 0.7160s
11.  Marco Andretti       Andretti                1m11.3557s  + 0.8505s
12.  Mario Romancini      Conquest                1m11.4567s  + 0.9618s
13.  James Rossiter       KV                      1m11.7759s  + 1.2707s
14.  Vitor Meira          Foyt                    1m11.9171s  + 1.4119s
15.  Raphael Matos        de Ferran Luczo Dragon  1m11.9924s  + 1.4872s
16.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti                1m12.1369s  + 1.6317s
17.  Mike Conway          Dreyer & Reinbold       1m12.1543s  + 1.6491s
18.  Danica Patrick       Andretti                1m12.5369s  + 2.0317s
19.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                     1m12.8124s  + 2.3072s
20.  Sarah Fisher         Sarah Fisher            1m16.0138s  + 5.5086s