Castroneves leads first practice

Newman/Haas/Lanigan's Rahal - in his first appearance at the Japanese track and his team's first run there since 2002 - had first moved ahead of early pacesetters Justin Wilson and Danice Patrick just over half an hour into the session.

He was only in front for a few minutes before championship leader Ryan Briscoe (Penske) usurped him, with the Penske driver then staying on top until the final runs.

Rahal remained in the top three throughout, and then delivered a 27.3437s lap to reclaim first position with five minutes to go.

That looked set to secure first place for Rahal until Castroneves (Penske) pipped him by 0.0101s in the final minute.

Briscoe held on to third, with Scott Dixon fifth for Ganassi, behind Panther's Dan Wheldon.

KV driver Mario Moraes followed up his breakthrough Chicagoland podium with sixth this morning, ahead of last year's winner Danica Patrick (Andretti Green) and Luczo Dragon's Raphael Matos. The Brazilian looks set to move closer to the rookie title this weekend as his main rival Robert Doornbos' HVM team is again struggling for oval pace.

Ryan Hunter-Reay (Foyt) and Oriol Servia - who is starting the last event of his current Newman/Haas/Lanigan stint before Alex Lloyd takes the car for Homestead - completed the top 10 ahead of title contender Dario Franchitti (Ganassi).

Kosuke Matsuura was the best of the returnees in 17th for Conquest, with fellow Japanese-born guest driver Roger Yasukawa 21st for Dreyer & Reinbold. Stanton Barrett propped up the order on his return to the 3G car.

The session was only interrupted once for a track inspection, and took place in bright and sunny conditions with no sign of the rain that has so often blighted Motegi events.

Pos  Driver             Team                  Time      Gap
 1.  Helio Castroneves  Penske                27.3336s
 2.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan   27.3437s  + 0.0101s
 3.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske                27.4368s  + 0.1032s
 4.  Dan Wheldon        Panther               27.4610s  + 0.1274s
 5.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi               27.4802s  + 0.1466s
 6.  Mario Moraes       KV                    27.4912s  + 0.1576s
 7.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green        27.5284s  + 0.1948s
 8.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon          27.5329s  + 0.1993s
 9.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Foyt                  27.6161s  + 0.2825s
10.  Oriol Servia       Newman/Haas/Lanigan   27.6625s  + 0.3289s
11.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi               27.6695s  + 0.3359s
12.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                 27.6709s  + 0.3372s
13.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green        27.6722s  + 0.3386s
14.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green        27.7208s  + 0.3872s
15.  Ed Carpenter       Vision                27.7352s  + 0.4016s
16.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green        27.7589s  + 0.4253s
17.  Kosuke Matsuura    Conquest              27.8271s  + 0.4935s
18.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold     27.8392s  + 0.5056s
19.  EJ Viso            HVM                   27.8526s  + 0.5190s
20.  Tomas Scheckter    Dreyer & Reinbold     27.9219s  + 0.5883s
21.  Roger Yasukawa     Dreyer & Reinbold     28.1014s  + 0.7678s
22.  Robert Doornbos    HVM                   28.2238s  + 0.8902s
23.  Stanton Barrett    3G                    29.0403s  + 1.7067s