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Dario Franchitti tops first IndyCar practice session at New Hampshire

Dario Franchitti was fastest in the opening practice session for this weekend's IndyCar Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

The defending series champion completed just 21 laps of the oval in his Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara, but wasted little time in knocking Marco Andretti from the top of the timesheets with a lap in 21.742s.

Andretti, who had sat at the head of the standings since the early stages of the session in his Andretti Autosport car, was knocked down to fourth place, but improved his pace late on and pulled himself back up to second in a time 0.190s slower than Franchitti's best.

Tony Kanaan and Takuma Sato - the former completing only 16 laps during the session - made it a good morning for KV Racing in third and fourth spots while Scott Dixon and Graham Rahal made it three Ganassi cars in the top six.

Ryan Briscoe was the best of the Penske drivers in seventh, with Oriol Servia (Newman/Haas) splitting him from his team-mate Helio Castroneves. Danica Patrick completed the top 10 for Andretti Autosport.

Franchitti's nearest challenger for the title, Will Power, was only 12th while Tomas Scheckter, who is substituting for the injured Justin Wilson at Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, was 16th.

Pos  Driver               Team                      Time             Laps
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Chip Ganassi Racing       21.7419            21
 2.  Marco Andretti       Andretti Autosport        21.9316  + 0.1897  38
 3.  Tony Kanaan          KV Racing                 21.9814  + 0.2395  16
 4.  Takuma Sato          KV Racing                 22.1068  + 0.3649  39
 5.  Scott Dixon          Chip Ganassi Racing       22.1930  + 0.4511  48
 6.  Graham Rahal         Chip Ganassi Racing       22.2002  + 0.4583  43
 7.  Ryan Briscoe         Team Penske               22.2096  + 0.4677  85
 8.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas Racing        22.2493  + 0.5074  50
 9.  Helio Castroneves    Team Penske               22.3737  + 0.6318  84
10.  Danica Patrick       Andretti Autosport        22.4086  + 0.6667  64
11.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas Racing        22.4439  + 0.7020  45
12.  Will Power           Team Penske               22.4557  + 0.7138  49
13.  JR Hildebrand        Panther Racing            22.5374  + 0.7955  56
14.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Autosport        22.6090  + 0.8671  48
15.  Charlie Kimball      Chip Ganassi Racing       22.6572  + 0.9153  65
16.  Tomas Scheckter      Dreyer & Reinbold Racing  22.6728  + 0.9309  65
17.  Mike Conway          Andretti Autosport        22.7138  + 0.9719  61
18.  E.J. Viso            KV Racing                 22.7930  + 1.0511  69
19.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne Racing         22.8119  + 1.0700  67
20.  Alex Tagliani        Sam Schmidt Motorsports   22.9435  + 1.2016  57
21.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne Racing         23.0693  + 1.3274  84
22.  Vitor Meira          A.J. Foyt Enterprises     23.1825  + 1.4406  48
23.  Pippa Mann           Rahal Letterman Lanigan   23.2442  + 1.5023  60
24.  Ed Carpenter         Sarah Fisher Racing       23.4277  + 1.6858  78
25.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold Racing  23.4998  + 1.7579  60
26.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM Racing                23.5570  + 1.8151  78
27.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest Racing           24.8220  + 3.0801  33

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