Sao Paulo race winner Will Power picked up where he left off by topping the opening practice session for round two of the IZOD IndyCar Series in St. Petersburg.
The Penske driver finally hit the front in the closing minutes with a 1m03.6741sec, after a frenetic session that saw all three Penske entries, both Ganassi drivers, Andretti Autosport's Tony Kanaan and Dreyer & Reinbold's Justin Wilson all take turns at the head of the order. Dario Franchitti ended up second for Ganassi, just 0.032sec behind Power, ahead of Penske's Ryan Briscoe and Helio Castroneves.
Newman/Haas/Lanigan's Hideki Mutoh was quick throughout the hour and eventually ended up fifth. Kanaan, Scott Dixon (Ganassi) and Ryan Hunter-Reay (Andretti) filled the rest of the top eight, followed by Wilson.
Takuma Sato completed more laps than most as he learned the track. Running in Lotus colors for the first time, the KV driver ultimately ended up 10th.
Graham Rahal had a promising first official appearance with Sarah Fisher Racing, where he will drive for the next two races. The American was in the top 10 for most of the session, although he was pushed back to 11th later on.
The morning passed without major incident. Andretti Autosport's Danica Patrick and KV's EJ Viso both lost a little track time with throttle and gearbox issues, respectively, but the field avoided the barriers at the Florida street track.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Will Power Penske 1m03.6741s
2. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 1m03.6503s + 0.0032s
3. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1m03.7836s + 0.1364s
4. Helio Castroneves Penske 1m03.8211s + 0.1739s
5. Hideki Mutoh Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1m04.0107s + 0.3635s
6. Tony Kanaan Andretti 1m04.0742s + 0.4271s
7. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1m04.1544s + 0.5073s
8. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti 1m04.2322s + 0.5850s
9. Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold 1m04.4940s + 0.8468s
10. Takuma Sato KV 1m04.6610s + 1.0138s
11. Graham Rahal Sarah Fisher 1m04.7353s + 1.0882s
12. Marco Andretti Andretti 1m04.7539s + 1.1067s
13. Alex Tagliani Fazzt 1m04.7850s + 1.1378s
14. Dan Wheldon Panther 1m04.8431s + 1.1959s
15. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold 1m04.9805s + 1.3333s
16. Alex Lloyd Dale Coyne 1m05.0150s + 1.3678s
17. Vitor Meira Foyt 1m04.1766s + 1.5294s
18. Danica Patrick Andretti 1m05.1766s + 1.5294s
19. EJ Viso KV 1m05.1938s + 1.5466s
20. Mario Romancini Conquest 1m05.2431s + 1.5959s
21. Raphael Matos de Ferran/Luczo Dragon 1m05.3003s + 1.6531s
22. Simona de Silvestro HVM 1m05.4216s + 1.7744s
23. Mario Moraes KV 1m05.5911s + 1.9439s
24. Milka Duno Dale Coyne 1m11.7450s + 8.0978s