Scott Dixon was quickest in opening practice for this weekend's Honda Indy Toronto IndyCar street race, despite tangling with Takuma Sato at the end of the hour.
Contact between Dixon and Sato at Turn 6 resulted in the KV car spin around in front of Dixon's Ganassi Dallara and come to a halt blocking it. The following Bertrand Baguette (Conquest) then slid into the rear of Dixon's car in the traffic jam. The incident brought the session to a slightly early end, with the officials deciding to throw the checkered flag as well as a yellow to allow the three cars to be restarted.
Sato had also been at the center of the morning's other yellow, when he crashed at the final turn on what would have been his first lap. The incident neatly removed Sato's rear wing, but he was soon back on track with a new one.
Dixon and the rest of the Ganassi and Penske contingent had sat out most of the morning, letting the underdogs clean the circuit and only joining in with 20 minutes to go. It did not take Dixon long to go fastest with a lap of 1m03.9149sec, just 0.0655sec ahead of Justin Wilson's Dreyer & Reinbold car.
Alex Tagliani got his home race weekend off to a great start with third for FAZZT, followed by Penske's Helio Castroneves, Ganassi's Dario Franchitti and Andretti Autosport duo Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay. Championship leader Will Power was back in eighth for Penske.
KV's EJ Viso was one of a host of drivers who had a turn on top during the opening 40 minutes and ended up ninth.
Returnees Tomas Scheckter (Dreyer & Reinbold), Graham Rahal (Newman/Haas) and Paul Tracy (KV) were 11th, 13th and 15th, respectively.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1m03.9149s
2. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 1m03.9804s + 0.0655s
3. Alex Tagliani FAZZT 1m04.0220s + 0.1071s
4. Helio Castroneves Penske 1m04.0354s + 0.1206s
5. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 1m04.3344s + 0.4195s
6. Tony Kanaan Andretti 1m04.4004s + 0.4856s
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 1m04.4111s + 0.4963s
8. Will Power Penske 1m04.4444s + 0.5295s
9. EJ Viso KV 1m04.4786s + 0.5637s
10. Raphael Matos De Ferran Dragon 1m04.5822s + 0.6673s
11. Tomas Scheckter Dreyer & Reinbold 1m04.6085s + 0.6937s
12. Vitor Meira Foyt 1m04.7159s + 0.8010s
13. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas 1m04.7488s + 0.8339s
14. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1m04.8761s + 0.9613s
15. Paul Tracy KV 1m05.0083s + 1.0935s
16. Marco Andretti Andretti 1m05.4021s + 1.4873s
17. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas 1m05.6601s + 1.7452s
18. Bertrand Baguette Conquest 1m05.6714s + 1.7565s
19. Dan Wheldon Panther 1m05.8653s + 1.9505s
20. Simona de Silvestro HVM 1m05.9338s + 2.0189s
21. Mario Moraes KV 1m06.0202s + 2.1053s
22. Danica Patrick Andretti 1m06.1770s + 2.2621s
23. Takuma Sato KV 1m06.4394s + 2.5246s
24. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 1m07.0909s + 3.1760s
25. Mario Romancini Conquest 1m07.6783s + 3.7635s
26. Milka Duno Dale Coyne 1m11.9951s + 8.0803s