Briscoe tops opening practice in Brazil

Ryan Briscoe on streets of Sao Paulo

Ryan Briscoe, coming off a runner-up finish in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, topped the time chart in the initial practice session for the Itaipava São Paulo Indy 300 presented by Nestle.

Driving the No. 6 Penske Logistics car, Briscoe toured the 2.536-mile, 11-turn street circuit in 1 minute, 25.1072 seconds. He moved to the top on his final lap (19th) of the session.

Team Penske teammate Will Power, who won the inaugural race in 2010, was second (1:25.1421) and Ryan Hunter-Reay — the race runner-up last year — was third (1:25.2043) in the No. 28 Team DHL/Sun Drop Citrus Soda car for Andretti Autosport.

The top 19 cars were separated by a second. Helio Castroneves (fourth at 1:25.2314) was the quickest of the Brazilian drivers, while Charlie Kimball (15th at 1:25.8942) was the top rookie in the 26-car field.

The second (hour-long) practice begins at 11 a.m. (ET), with the three rounds of qualifications at 2 p.m. (ET). Watch live Timing & Scoring augmented by the IMS Radio Network call on indycar.com. VERSUS' coverage of qualifications begins at 6 p.m. (ET).

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