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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