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Power tops final practice at St Pete

Will Power made a fine start to his first weekend as a Penske driver by topping the final practice session ahead of qualifying at IndyCar's St Petersburg opener today

The Australian has been drafted in to the team while Helio Castroneves's court case is resolved and showed the first signs of being able to challenge Penske's rival Chip Ganassi drivers for victory when he pipped Dario Franchitti to the top of the timesheet today.

Franchitti continued his strong form on his series return after setting the pace in first practice yesterday, posting the second fastest time of the day ahead of team-mate and reigning champion Scott Dixon.

Marco Andretti was fourth quickest for Andretti-Green and Robert Doornbos made it four different teams in the top five for Newman/Haas/Lanigan. The Dutchman had been lying third until the final minute of the session when Dixon and Andretti improved their times to push him down to fifth.

Tony Kanaan and Graham Rahal were sixth and seventh quickest in the second AGR and Newman/Haas cars, ahead of Dan Wheldon's Panther Racing entry in eighth.

Justin Wilson and Vitor Meira completed the top 10 for Dale Coyne and AJ Foyt's respective teams.

Penske's other driver, Ryan Briscoe, was only 12th fastest in the session, sandwiched between series debutants Mike Conway and Raphael Matos.

The field was tightly packed around the Florida street circuit, with the first 17 cars covered by just one second ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session.

Pos Driver               Team                 Time         Gap
 1. Will Power           Penske               1:02.838
 2. Dario Franchitti     Ganassi              1:02.957  +0.119
 3. Scott Dixon          Ganassi              1:03.014  +0.177
 4. Marco Andretti       Andretti-Green       1:03.234  +0.396
 5. Robert Doornbos      Newman/Haas          1:03.251  +0.414
 6. Tony Kanaan          Andretti-Green       1:03.281  +0.442
 7. Graham Rahal         Newman/Haas          1:03.289  +0.452
 8. Dan Wheldon          Panther              1:03.331  +0.493
 9. Justin Wilson        Dale Coyne           1:03.368  +0.530
10. Vitor Meira          AJ Foyt              1:03.394  +0.556
11. Mike Conway          D&R                  1:03.403  +0.565
12. Ryan Briscoe         Penske               1:03.485  +0.647
13. Raphael Matos        Luczo Dragon         1:03.653  +0.815
14. Hideki Mutoh         Andretti-Green       1:03.740  +0.902
15. Ernesto Viso         HVM                  1:03.830  +0.992
16. Ryan Hunter-Reay     Vision               1:03.841  +1.003
17. Darren Manning       D&R                  1:03.865  +1.027
18. Danica Patrick       Andretti-Green       1:04.138  +1.300
19. Mario Moraes         KV                   1:04.530  +1.693
20. Alex Tagliani        Conquest             1:04.556  +1.718
21. Ed Carpenter         Vision               1:04.911  +2.074
22. Stanton Barrett      3G                   1:07.353  +4.518
Previous article Wilson says St Pete pole is possible
Next article Rahal claims pole at St Petersburg

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