Iowa IndyCar: Tony Kanaan leads Scott Dixon in Ganassi practice 1-2

On a blazing hot afternoon, Kanaan established himself at the top early on with a 179.218mph lap, and his speed was never bettered.

Team-mate Scott Dixon was also at his fastest early on, posting a 179.113mph effort with his third lap, which remained good enough to keep him second-fastest until the end of the session.

Andretti's Ryan Hunter-Reay was third-fastest ahead of Charlie Kimball and Josef Newgarden.

While IndyCar sessions are usually typified by a close field, today's opening 45 minutes was anything but.

Pippa Mann brought up the rear at 169.589mph - just over one second slower than the leaders, on a track with a sub-18s lap.

Three drivers were in the 170mph bracket, and another three failed to break into the 172mph range.

Two brief caution periods for track inspections served as the sole interruptions to an afternoon that otherwise passed without incident.

A second practice session is scheduled for later on Friday.

FIRST PRACTICE RESULTS:

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Gap
1	Tony Kanaan	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	17.9580s	-
2	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	17.9685s	0.0105s
3	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	Dallara/Honda	18.0313s	0.0733s
4	Charlie Kimball	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	18.0596s	0.1016s
5	Josef Newgarden	CFH Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	18.1669s	0.2089s
6	Juan Pablo Montoya	Team Penske	Dallara/Chevrolet	18.3101s	0.3521s
7	Sebastien Bourdais	KVSH Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	18.3418s	0.3838s
8	Helio Castroneves	Team Penske	Dallara/Chevrolet	18.3507s	0.3927s
9	Ed Carpenter	CFH Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	18.4440s	0.4860s
10	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	Dallara/Chevrolet	18.4532s	0.4952s
11	Carlos Munoz	Andretti Autosport	Dallara/Honda	18.5038s	0.5458s
12	Sage Karam	Chip Ganassi Racing	Dallara/Chevrolet	18.5106s	0.5526s
13	Takuma Sato	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Dallara/Honda	18.5669s	0.6089s
14	Will Power	Team Penske	Dallara/Chevrolet	18.6049s	0.6469s
15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan	Dallara/Honda	18.6348s	0.6768s
16	James Jakes	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Dallara/Honda	18.6416s	0.6836s
17	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	Dallara/Honda	18.6482s	0.6902s
18	Stefano Coletti	KV Racing Technology	Dallara/Chevrolet	18.7175s	0.7595s
19	Jack Hawksworth	AJ Foyt Enterprises	Dallara/Honda	18.7705s	0.8125s
20	Justin Wilson	Andretti Autosport	Dallara/Honda	18.7937s	0.8357s
21	Tristan Vautier	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara/Honda	18.8566s	0.8986s
22	Gabby Chaves	Bryan Herta Autosport	Dallara/Honda	18.8575s	0.8995s
23	Ryan Briscoe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	Dallara/Honda	18.8956s	0.9376s
24	Pippa Mann	Dale Coyne Racing	Dallara/Honda	18.9777s	1.0197s