Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Kanaan sets scorching pace in desert

Champ Car convert Tony Kannan set the pace at the IRL IndyCar Series Test in the West on Saturday as the moved from California to Phoenix, Arizona

The Brazilian, driving for Andretti Green Racing, set a fastest time of 20.3639s around the 1-mile oval, over a tenth of a second faster than Ganassi Racing driver Scott Dixon. The Penske Racing duo of Gil de Ferran and Helio Castroneves, who set the pace on Friday, were third and fourth fastest respectively.

"We have a really good car in both qualifying and race trim, and I'm very happy with the way everything went today," said Kanaan. "Michael [Andretti, team boss] would have been quick out there, too. When he had the [broken header] problem, he began working with me, and I can say that it really helped."

Kanaan's team-mate, Dario Franchitti, was only 11th fastest after suffering from a gearbox problem. He said: "It was a tough start for us today. We weren't happy with the car in race trim yesterday, and then this morning we had a big imbalance. The Alpine/Archipelago/Motorola crew worked really hard all day, and we had a car that was strong late in the afternoon session. Unfortunately, we had a gearbox leak that shortened our session, and we were unable to put new tyres on the car to see how we compared with everyone else. I would say it was a good test for the whole team. Tony seems to have a good car in qualifying trim, so that looks promising for us."

It was also a bad day for those running Chevrolet engines. Reigning IndyCar champion Sam Hornish Jr was the fastest of the manufacturer's runners, but only set the 12th quickest time.

Tony Kanaan Andretti Green Racing Dallara-Honda 20.3639s
Scott Dixon Ganassi Racing G-Force-Toyota 20.4261s
Gil de Ferran Penske Racing Dallara-Toyota 20.4484s
Helio Castroneves Penske Racing Dallara-Toyota 20.5312s
Kenny Brack Team Rahal Dallara-Honda 20.5387s
Felipe Giaffone Mo Nunn Racing G-Force-Toyota 20.5388s
Tomas Scheckter Ganassi Racing G-Force-Toyota 20.5678s
Scott Sharp Kelley Racing Dallara-Toyota 20.6475s
Roger Yasukawa Fernandez Racing Dallara-Honda 20.7112s
Tora Takagi Mo Nunn Racing G-Force-Toyota 20.8056s
Dario Franchitti Andretti Green Racing Dallara-Honda 20.8456s
Sam Hornish Jr Panther Racing Dallara-Chevrolet 20.8475s
Al Unser Jr Kelley Racing Dallara-Toyota 20.8857s
Robbie Buhl Dreyer and Reinbold Dallara-Chevrolet 20.9207s
Michael Andretti Andretti Green Racing Dallara-Honda 20.9369s
Sarah Fisher Dreyer and Reinbold Dallara-Chevrolet 20.9781s
Buddy Rice Cheever Racing Dallara-Chevrolet 21.0585s
Jaques Lazier Team Menard Dallara-Chevrolet 21.0746s
AJ Foyt IV AJ Foyt Enterprises G-Force-Toyota 21.0794s
Vitor Meira Team Menard Dallara-Chevrolet 21.5491s

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Day 1: Giaffone leads the pack
Next article Penske duo head opening day of testing

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe