Rahal tops second St Pete practice

The Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing driver was followed by his 2008 team-mate Justin Wilson, who produced a spectacular performance for the small Dale Coyne Racing team by taking second, just 0.1803 seconds down on Rahal's time.

Morning practice pace-setter Dario Franchitti was third for Ganassi, having topped much of the second session, ahead of HVM's EJ Viso and Andretti Green's Tony Kanaan, who had missed all of first practice.

Ryan Briscoe (Penske) and champion Scott Dixon (Ganassi) both had excursions on their way to sixth and seventh, as did eighth-placed Will Power in the second Penske entry.

Foyt's Vitor Meira took ninth despite being involved in a pitlane tangle with AGR's Hideki Mutoh and Panther Racing's Dan Wheldon that saw the latter pushed into the wall, breaking his car's suspension. Mutoh was held responsible for the incident and ordered to sit out 10 minutes of the session as a penalty.

Danica Patrick had a quick spin on her way to 10th for Andretti Green, ahead of Dreyer & Reinbold duo Darren Manning and Mike Conway, with the GP2 graduate the fastest of the rookies.

The pitlane tangle caused one of three full course yellows during the hour-long session. NASCAR convert Stanton Barrett triggered the other two, having a pair of minor incidents as he acclimatised to open wheel and street course racing.

Pos  Driver            Team                 Time
 1.  Graham Rahal      Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1m03.4078s
 2.  Justin Wilson     Dale Coyne           1m03.5881s  + 0.1803s
 3.  Dario Franchitti  Ganassi              1m03.7007s  + 0.2929s
 4.  EJ Viso           HVM                  1m03.8156   + 0.4078s
 5.  Tony Kanaan       Andretti Green       1m03.8454s  + 0.4376s
 6.  Ryan Briscoe      Penske               1m03.8603s  + 0.4525s
 7.  Scott Dixon       Ganassi              1m04.0071s  + 0.5993s
 8.  Will Power        Penske               1m04.0851s  + 0.6773s
 9.  Vitor Meira       Foyt                 1m04.1641s  + 0.7563s
10.  Danica Patrick    Andretti Green       1m04.2777s  + 0.8699s
11.  Darren Manning    Dreyer & Reinbold    1m04.2820s  + 0.8742s
12.  Mike Conway       Dreyer & Reinbold    1m04.3041s  + 0.8963s
13.  Alex Tagliani     Conquest             1m04.5407s  + 1.1329s
14.  Marco Andretti    Andretti Green       1m04.5955s  + 1.1877s
15.  Hideki Mutoh      Andretti Green       1m04.6573s  + 1.2495s
16.  Robert Doornbos   Newman/Haas/Lanigan  1m04.7011s  + 1.2933s
17.  Mario Moraes      KV                   1m04.7751s  + 1.3673s
18.  Raphael Matos     Luczo Dragon         1m04.7968s  + 1.3890s
19.  Dan Wheldon       Panther              1m04.9190s  + 1.5112s
20.  Ryan Hunter-Reay  Vision               1m04.9882s  + 1.5804s
21.  Ed Carpenter      Vision               1m06.0942s  + 2.6864s
22.  Stanton Barrett   3G                   1m10.3202s  + 6.9124s