Dixon quickest in Friday practice

The reigning champion only took to the track with 15 minutes remaining, but quickly made his way to the top of the timesheets, ending the afternoon 0.4 seconds clear of the field.

Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne Racing) was a frontrunner throughout the session and ended up narrowly denying Ganassi a one-two as he pipped Dario Franchitti for second place.

Tony Kanaan fell to fourth for Andretti Green Racing having been quickest for much of the early running, with Graham Rahal completing the top five in his Newman/Haas/Lanigan car.

After his last-minute call-up by KV Racing following the death of regular driver Mario Moraes' father, returnee Paul Tracy took a strong sixth place ahead of championship leader Ryan Briscoe (Penske).

Of the other drivers changing seats or reappearing this weekend, Oriol Servia was 11th on his return with Newman/Haas/Lanigan, four places ahead of Robert Doornbos, whose switch from N/H/L to HVM gave Servia a chance to get back into the series.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time        Gap
 1.  Scott Dixon        Ganassi              1m08.2298s
 2.  Justin Wilson      Coyne                1m08.6425s  + 0.4127s
 3.  Dario Franchitti   Ganassi              1m08.6760s  + 0.4462s
 4.  Tony Kanaan        Andretti Green       1m08.8390s  + 0.6092s
 5.  Graham Rahal       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1m08.9932s  + 0.7634s
 6.  Paul Tracy         KV                   1m09.1094s  + 0.8796s
 7.  Ryan Briscoe       Penske               1m09.1440s  + 0.9142s
 8.  Marco Andretti     Andretti Green       1m09.2477s  + 1.0179s
 9.  Raphael Matos      Luczo Dragon         1m09.2833s  + 1.0535s
10.  EJ Viso            HVM                  1m09.3563s  + 1.1265s
11.  Oriol Servia       Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1m09.4613s  + 1.2315s
12.  Helio Castroneves  Penske               1m09.4989s  + 1.2691s
13.  Ryan Hunter-Reay   Foyt                 1m09.4996s  + 1.2698s
14.  Danica Patrick     Andretti Green       1m09.5421s  + 1.3123s
15.  Robert Doornbos    HVM                  1m10.0482s  + 1.8184s
16.  Hideki Mutoh       Andretti Green       1m10.1531s  + 1.9233s
17.  Ed Carpenter       Vision               1m10.3882s  + 2.1584s
18.  Dan Wheldon        Panther              1m10.7354s  + 2.5056s
19.  Mike Conway        Dreyer & Reinbold    1m11.8048s  + 3.5750s
20.  Richard Antinucci  3G                   1m12.5210s  + 4.2912s
21.  Milka Duno         Dreyer & Reinbold    1m15.8764s  + 7.6466s