Power fastest in second session

Just hours after Penske announced that the exonerated Helio Castroneves was travelling to the track to reclaim his car from Power following the end of his tax evasion trial, Power beat reigning champion Scott Dixon to the top spot in the closing seconds of the afternoon session.

The Australian will now move to a third Penske car for the rest of the weekend. After Long Beach - which he won last year in the Champ Car finale - Power's only other confirmed appearance in the car is at the Indianapolis 500.

Dixon had a quiet start to the afternoon, languishing outside the top ten and taking a trip down the Turn 9 escape road. But the Ganassi driver surged forward in the final minutes, exchanging first place with Power twice before the Penske man claimed the position by 0.1192 seconds.

Raphael Matos jumped to third for Luczo Dragon with his final lap of the day, again denying Dreyer & Reinbold's Mike Conway the honour of being top rookie, although the Briton still took fifth place, with Dan Wheldon (Panther Racing) splitting the two newcomers.

Morning pace-setter Dario Franchitti completed the top six for Ganassi, ahead of Vision's Ryan Hunter-Reay and Andretti Green's Tony Kanaan.

Power's team-mate Ryan Briscoe had a less successful time in the second Penske entry. The St Petersburg winner crashed at Turn 6 on only his sixth lap, and had to return to the paddock for front wing and suspension repairs. He eventually rejoined near the end of the hour to take ninth place.

KV Racing's Mario Moraes was quickest for most of the first half of the session, but was ultimately pushed right back to 15th place as others improved.

Pos  Driver            Team                 Time              Gap
 1.  Will Power        Penske               1m10.5486s
 2.  Scott Dixon       Ganassi              1m10.6678s  + 0.1192s
 3.  Raphael Matos     Luczo Dragon         1m10.8247s  + 0.2761s
 4.  Dan Wheldon       Panther              1m10.9033s  + 0.3547s
 5.  Mike Conway       Dreyer & Reinbold    1m10.9981s  + 0.4495s
 6.  Dario Franchitti  Ganassi              1m11.0218s  + 0.4732s
 7.  Ryan Hunter-Reay  Vision               1m11.0263s  + 0.4777s
 8.  Tony Kanaan       Andretti Green       1m11.1238s  + 0.5752s
 9.  Ryan Briscoe      Penske               1m11.1416s  + 0.5930s
10.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1m11.1768s  + 0.6282s
11.  EJ Viso           HVM                  1m11.2220s  + 0.6734s
12.  Justin Wilson     Dale Coyne           1m11.2319s  + 0.6833s
13.  Darren Manning    Dreyer & Reinbold    1m11.2441s  + 0.6955s
14.  Robert Doornbos   Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1m11.2545s  + 0.7059s
15.  Mario Moraes      KV                   1m11.2702s  + 0.7216s
16.  Hideki Mutoh      Andretti Green       1m11.5538s  + 1.0052s
17.  Alex Tagliani     Conquest             1m11.5771s  + 1.0285s
18.  Marco Andretti    Andretti Green       1m11.7980s  + 1.2494s
19.  Vitor Meira       Foyt                 1m12.1896s  + 1.6410s
20.  Danica Patrick    Andretti Green       1m12.2254s  + 1.6768s
21.  Ed Carpenter      Vision               1m12.5171s  + 1.9685s
22.  Stanton Barrett   3G                   1m14.0743s  + 3.5257s