Fontana IndyCar: Marco Andretti fastest in night practice
Marco Andretti topped the times in IndyCar's Friday evening session at Fontana; the final practice session ahead of Saturday night's race
Andretti's best average speed of 218.755mph came on just his second lap, but it proved good enough to remain unbeaten.
Helio Castroneves came close, the Brazilian logging a 218.745mph average.
Ed Carpenter, Tony Kanaan and polesitter Will Power completed the top five; the latter just edging out Scott Dixon.
Unlike the morning outing, the session passed without incident, and provided a final chance at track time for those whose running had been curtailed earlier.
These included Takuma Sato and Pippa Mann, both of whom crashed during morning practice, and Justin Wilson, who was unable to participate in qualifying after suffering a mechanical problem on his out-lap.
Meanwhile, the green flag time for Saturday's race has been put back by 10 minutes in an effort to eliminate the visibility problems caused by the setting sun during the opening laps of last year's race.
The track is aligned east-west, meaning that when the sun reached a certain position in the sky, the drivers were effectively blinded on the entry to Turn 3.
Pos Driver Team/Engine Time Gap 1. Marco Andretti Andretti/Chevy 32.9135s 2. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy 32.9151s +0.0016s 3. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy 33.0053s +0.0918s 4. Tony Kanaan KV/Chevy 33.0059s +0.0924s 5. Will Power Penske/Chevy 33.0829s +0.1694s 6. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Honda 33.1266s +0.2131s 7. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Chevy 33.1469s +0.2334s 8. Alex Tagliani Ganassi/Honda 33.2184s +0.3049s 9. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Honda 33.3203s +0.4068s 10. Simoa de Silvestro KV/Chevy 33.3414s +0.4279s 11. AJ Allmendinger Penske/Chevy 33.3910s +0.4775s 12. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Chevy 33.4099s +0.4964s 13. Oriol Servia Panther/Chevy 33.4354s +0.5219s 14. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon/Chevy 33.4363s +0.5228s 15. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda 33.5370s +0.6235s 16. James Jakes Rahal/Honda 33.5567s +0.6432s 17. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 33.5975s +0.6840s 18. Pippa Mann Coyne/Honda 33.5981s +0.6846s 19. JR Hildebrand Herta/Honda 33.6072s +0.6937s 20. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 33.6666s +0.7531s 21. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Chevy 33.6785s +0.7650s 22. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 33.6903s +0.7768s 23. Sebastian Saavedra Dragon/Chevy 33.7667s +0.8532s 24. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 33.8087s +0.8952s 25. Tristan Vautier Schmidt/Honda All drivers use Dallara DW12 chassis
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