Power tops IndyCar testing

The Penske driver was quickest in both the morning and afternoon sessions at the Alabama road course, his 1m12.5056s beating second-placed Scott Dixon (Ganassi) by half a tenth of a second.

There were encouraging signs of challenges to the usual Penske/Ganassi dominance at the head of the order, with Justin Wilson taking Dreyer & Reinbold to third place, ahead of Penske's Helio Castroneves.

But the star of the day was potential rookie James Hinchcliffe, testing for Newman/Haas again as he continues to work towards a deal with the squad. The Canadian took second place in the morning and was fifth overall.

Ryan Briscoe was sixth for Penske, having caused a stoppage with a minor off in the morning. KV's Takuma Sato - who will carry 'Pray for Japan' logos on his car tomorrow following the natural disaster in his homeland - and Panther's JR Hildebrand also had incidents during the day.

EJ Viso put the lead KV car in seventh, with returnee Mike Conway the fastest of Andretti Autosport's quartet in eighth, just ahead of team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Alex Tagliani completed the top 10 in his now Sam Schmidt Motorsports-run car, while reigning champion Dario Franchitti was back in 12th for Ganassi.

Four-time Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais, who looks increasingly likely to do a part-season deal with Dale Coyne Racing, was 16th. Coyne also gave a surprise IndyCar debut to GP2 driver James Jakes, the Briton taking 23rd in the team's #19 car.

Testing concludes with another full day of running tomorrow.

Pos  Driver               Team               Time        Gap
 1.  Will Power           Penske             1m12.5056s
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi            1m12.5538s  + 0.0482s
 3.  Justin Wilson        Dreyer & Reinbold  1m12.6791s  + 0.1735s
 4.  Helio Castroneves    Penske             1m12.7764s  + 0.2708s
 5.  James Hinchcliffe    Newman/Haas        1m12.8729s  + 0.3673s
 6.  Ryan Briscoe         Penske             1m12.9715s  + 0.4659s
 7.  EJ Viso              KV                 1m13.0170s  + 0.5114s
 8.  Mike Conway          Andretti           1m13.0338s  + 0.5282s
 9.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti           1m13.1048s  + 0.5992s
10.  Alex Tagliani        Schmidt            1m13.1187s  + 0.6131s
11.  Graham Rahal         Ganassi            1m13.1366s  + 0.6310s
12.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi            1m13.1524s  + 0.6468s
13.  Takuma Sato          KV                 1m13.1913s  + 0.6857s
14.  Oriol Servia         Newman/Haas        1m13.2537s  + 0.7481s
15.  Marco Andretti       Andretti           1m13.2586s  + 0.7530s
16.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dale Coyne         1m13.2904s  + 0.7848s
17.  Simona de Silvestro  HVM                1m13.4546s  + 0.9490s
18.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi            1m13.4830s  + 0.9774s
19.  Danica Patrick       Andretti           1m13.7102s  + 1.2046s
20.  Vitor Meira          Foyt               1m13.7737s  + 1.2681s
21.  Sebastian Saavedra   Conquest           1m13.8020s  + 1.2964s
22.  JR Hildebrand        Panther            1m14.5534s  + 2.0478s
23.  James Jakes          Dale Coyne         1m14.7775s  + 2.2719s
24.  Ana Beatriz          Dreyer & Reinbold  1m15.0777s  + 2.5721s