Franchitti flies in St. Pete practice
Dario Franchitti made an impact on his return to the IndyCar Series, setting a time six tenths of a second quicker than anyone else in the first practice session ahead of the opening race of the season this weekend on the streets of St. Petersburg
The 2007 champion waited in the pits for the majority of the 90-minute session while the track dried, but appeared at the end for just 10 laps and set a 1m04.503s on his penultimate tour. The Scot's Chip Ganassi team-mate, reigning champion Scott Dixon, was his nearest challenger but Dixon's best effort was a 1m05.148s.
Behind the Ganassi pair, Justin Wilson was third fastest for Dale Coyne Racing following a stint at the top of the timesheet as the surface began to dry out.
Ryan Briscoe was fourth in the first Penske car, ahead of Panther's Dan Wheldon and HVM Racing's EJ Viso - the Venezuelan having been the quickest driver after an hour's running on the wet streets.
Marco Andretti set the best time of the Andretti-Green cars in seventh place, just ahead of Penske's Will Power, though the pair were still only half a second adrift of Dixon's second place time.
Mario Moraes finished the session in ninth place, with Graham Rahal just pipping his Newman/Haas/Lanigan team-mate Robert Doornbos to 10th.
All 22 confirmed entries were present, although AGR's Tony Kanaan did not complete any flying laps.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 1:04.503 2. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1:05.148 3. Justin Wilson Dale Coyne 1:05.184 4. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1:05.206 5. Dan Wheldon Panther 1:05.339 6. EJ Viso HVM 1:05.397 7. Marco Andretti Andretti-Green 1:05.637 8. Will Power Penske 1:05.650 9. Mario Moraes KV 1:05.741 10. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas 1:05.820 11. Robert Doornbos Newman/Haas 1:06.089 12. Vitor Meira AJ Foyt 1:06.269 13. Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon 1:06.304 14. Alex Tagliani Conquest 1:06.387 15. Ryan Hunter-Reay Vision 1:06.421 16. Mike Conway D&R 1:06.534 17. Hideki Mutoh Andretti-Green 1:06.773 18. Danica Patrick Andretti-Green 1:07.313 19. Ed Carpenter Vision 1:08.542 20. Darren Manning D&R 1:08.673 21. Stanton Barrett 3G 1:10.644 22. Tony Kanaan Andretti-Green no time
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