Franchitti quickest in opening practice

The leading contenders did not even come out for installation laps until the final quarter of an hour, preferring to let the smaller teams clean the track for them at first.

When the pace increased in the closing stages, it was Penske's Ryan Briscoe who first came through to depose previous benchmarks Justin Wilson (Dreyer & Reinbold) and Mario Moraes (KV), before Dixon, championship leader Will Power (Penske) and finally Franchitti took turns in front in quick succession.

Power finished the morning third behind the Ganassi pair, and ahead of his team-mate Helio Castroneves, while Wilson got back up to fifth in the end.

Paul Tracy made a very strong start to his second weekend back at KV, taking sixth place having been a consistent frontrunner in the second half of the session.

His team-mates EJ Viso and Takuma Sato were ninth and 10th, behind Briscoe and Andretti Autosport's lead runner Ryan Hunter-Reay. Sato was soaked in an early incident when he understeered off-course and through the puddles left from the previous night's rain.

There were two stoppages, the first caused by Milka Duno (Dale Coyne) spinning into the tyres at Turn 10, and the second by Bertrand Baguette spinning his Conquest car through an advertising sign after a rough landing from a chicane kerb.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap
 1.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m03.0885s
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m03.1726s  + 0.0841s
 3.  Will Power           Penske             1m03.1732s  + 0.0847s
 4.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m03.3504s  + 0.2619s
 5.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m03.4923s  + 0.4038s
 6.  Paul Tracy           KV                 1m03.5054s  + 0.4169s
 7.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m03.5801s  + 0.4916s
 8.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m03.8048s  + 0.7163s
 9.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m03.8252s  + 0.7367s
10.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m03.8858s  + 0.7973s
11.  Tony Kanaan          Andretti           1m03.9549s  + 0.8664s
12.  Mario Moraes         KV                 1m03.9808s  + 0.8923s
13.  Alex Tagliani        Fazzt              1m04.0583s  + 0.9698s
14.  Hideki Mutoh         Newman/Haas        1m04.2980s  + 1.2095s
15.  Mario Romancini      Conquest           1m04.3564s  + 1.2680s
16.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m04.4140s  + 1.3255s
17.  Raphael Matos        De Ferran Dragon   1m04.4304s  + 1.3420s
18.  Dan Wheldon          Panther            1m04.5164s  + 1.4280s
19.  Tomas Scheckter      Dreyer & Reinbold  1m04.5257s  + 1.4372s
20.  Alex Lloyd           Dale Coyne         1m04.6923s  + 1.6038s
21.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m04.7031s  + 1.6146s
22.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m04.7061s  + 1.6177s
23.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m04.9767s  + 1.8883s
24.  Bertrand Baguette    Conquest           1m05.3084s  + 2.2199s
25.  Milka Duno           Dale Coyne         1m15.2416s  + 12.1532s