Dario Franchitti stays on top in second IndyCar practice at New Hampshire

As was the case earlier, the defending champion featured near the top of the timesheets from the time he ventured onto the circuit and ended up quickest in a time of 21.567 seconds.

His team-mates Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal completed the top three, each one of them within 0.1s of Franchitti's best time.

Surprisingly it was not the Penske or Andretti Autosport drivers that posed the greatest threat to the Ganassi trio, but those of KV Racing. Tony Kanaan was the best of them in fourth with Takuma Sato and Ernesto Viso completing the top six.

James Hinchcliffe and Oriol Servia put both Newman/Haas cars in the top eight while Ryan Hunter-Reay and Charlie Kimball completed the top 10 for the Andretti Autosport and Ganassi squads.

The Penske drivers all appeared off the pace with Ryan Briscoe, Helio Castroneves and Will Power 12th, 16th and 19th respectively.

Pippa Mann, who is making her first IndyCar appearance since the Indianapolis 500, spun at Turn 2 midway through the session, clipping the tyre barrier with her Rahal Letterman Langian car's rear wing and causing damage to its suspension.

Pos  Driver               Team                      Time             Laps
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Chip Ganassi Racing       21.5665            97
 2.  Scott Dixon          Chip Ganassi Racing       21.6204  + 0.0539  89
 3.  Graham Rahal         Chip Ganassi Racing       21.6644  + 0.0979  99
 4.  Tony Kanaan          KV Racing                 21.7368  + 0.1703  101
 5.  Takuma Sato          KV Racing                 21.7713  + 0.2048  121
 6.  Ernesto Viso         KV Racing                 21.7743  + 0.2078  79
 7.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas Racing        21.8161  + 0.2496  131
 8.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas Racing        21.8200  + 0.2535  112
 9.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Autosport        21.8232  + 0.2567  109
10.  Charlie Kimball      Chip Ganassi Racing       21.9192  + 0.3527  63
11.  Marco Andretti       Andretti Autosport        21.9689  + 0.4024  85
12.  Ryan Briscoe         Team Penske               22.0330  + 0.4665  90
13.  Mike Conway          Andretti Autosport        22.0649  + 0.4984  129
14.  Tomas Scheckter      Dreyer & Reinbold Racing  22.1047  + 0.5382  117
15.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne Racing         22.1133  + 0.5468  92
16.  Helio Castroneves    Team Penske               22.1375  + 0.5710  93
17.  Danica Patrick       Andretti Autosport        22.1589  + 0.5924  105
18.  JR Hildebrand        Panther Racing            22.1779  + 0.6114  95
19.  Will Power           Team Penske               22.2861  + 0.7196  113
20.  Vitor Meira          AJ Foyt Enterprises       22.2904  + 0.7239  111
21.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt Motorsports   22.3055  + 0.7390  89
22.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne Racing         22.4246  + 0.8581  92
23.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher Racing       22.7104  + 1.1439  103
24.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold Racing  22.7242  + 1.1577  80
25.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM Racing                23.1201  + 1.5536  81
26.  Pippa Mann           Rahal Letterman Lanigan   23.5376  + 2.0008  15
27.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest Racing           23.6379  + 2.0714  103