Franchitti tops Power in opening IndyCar practice
Dario Franchitti |
IRL |
Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti, defending champion for the race here, turned the fastest lap in Friday's 1-hour practice session for the IndyCars at Infineon Raceway. His lap of 1m18.2969s just beat Penske Racing's Will Power by just 41 thousandths of a second and FAZZT's Alex Tagliani.
Scott Dixon and Justin Wilson rounded out the top-5.
Marco Andretti, Graham Rahal, Ryan Briscoe, Dan Wheldon and Hideki Mutoh rounded out the top-10
Starting up front is always key on the undulating 2.303-mile road course in beautiful Sonoma, California where passing is always difficult, so qualifying up front on Saturday is on everyone’s mind.
The top 16 drivers were separated by just 1-second on Friday and with the track rubbering in more on Saturday one can expect the speeds to increase and the gap to narrow.
Will Power is still a bit careful when he drives through the fast and blind S-turn 3A where he had his bad accident last year that resulted in a broken back.
"I still look for any dust up ahead. The warning light system is much better than last year, but you are so busy through there it takes full concentration and it's hard to take your eyes off the track to look for the flagman or lights."
Conquest Racing has flipped the numbers of its two IZOD IndyCar Series entries for this weekend's Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma.
Bertrand Baguette's RACB/Conquest Racing car will carry the No. 34 while Francesco Dracone's Halkin Jet/LaPasta.biz/Conquest car will carry the No. 36. Baguette is looking forward to the change this weekend which only involved changing the number decals on the car he has driven for most of the season.
"I prefer the No. 34," the Belgian rookie said. "I did all my karting with the No. 34 and even a few of my first single-seater (race cars) had 34. I actually wanted to run 34 this year, but Mario (Romancini) already had it."
While team owner Eric Bachelart hasn't decided what will happen for the rest of the year, Baguette is hopeful that he can put together a strong performance with the number to keep it.
"It's my preferred number and have always done well with it," he said. "I think the change is good and I hope that it is still a lucky number for me."
Another one-hour practice session is slated Saturday morning followed by PEAK Performance Pole Qualifying featuring the Firestone Fast Six. The Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma is scheduled for 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday.
Results
Rank |
No | Name | Laps | Gap | Diff | Best Lap Time | Best Lap Speed |
1 | 10 | Dario Franchitti | 12 | –.—- | –.—- | 1:18.2969 | 105.889 mph |
2 | 12 | Will Power | 13 | 0.0041 | 0.0041 | 1:18.3011 | 105.884 mph |
3 | 77 | Alex Tagliani | 19 | 0.2650 | 0.2691 | 1:18.5661 | 105.526 mph |
4 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 12 | 0.0409 | 0.3100 | 1:18.6070 | 105.472 mph |
5 | 22 | Justin Wilson | 14 | 0.0091 | 0.3191 | 1:18.6161 | 105.459 mph |
6 | 26 | Marco Andretti | 17 | 0.0109 | 0.3300 | 1:18.6269 | 105.445 mph |
7 | 02 | Graham Rahal | 19 | 0.0243 | 0.3543 | 1:18.6513 | 105.412 mph |
8 | 6 | Ryan Briscoe | 14 | 0.2642 | 0.6185 | 1:18.9154 | 105.059 mph |
9 | 4 | Dan Wheldon | 21 | 0.0054 | 0.6239 | 1:18.9209 | 105.052 mph |
10 | 06 | Hideki Mutoh | 18 | 0.0342 | 0.6581 | 1:18.9551 | 105.007 mph |
11 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | 12 | 0.0176 | 0.6757 | 1:18.9727 | 104.983 mph |
12 | 2 | Raphael Matos | 13 | 0.0533 | 0.7290 | 1:19.0259 | 104.912 mph |
13 | 24 | JR Hildebrand | 15 | 0.0125 | 0.7415 | 1:19.0385 | 104.896 mph |
14 | 32 | Mario Moraes | 14 | 0.0491 | 0.7906 | 1:19.0875 | 104.831 mph |
15 | 11 | Tony Kanaan | 3 | 0.0100 | 0.8006 | 1:19.0976 | 104.817 mph |
16 | 37 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 15 | 0.2068 | 1.0074 | 1:19.3044 | 104.544 mph |
17 | 8 | EJ Viso | 14 | 0.1231 | 1.1305 | 1:19.4274 | 104.382 mph |
18 | 34 | Bertrand Baguette | 21 | 0.0772 | 1.2077 | 1:19.5047 | 104.281 mph |
19 | 14 | Vitor Meira | 25 | 0.1014 | 1.3091 | 1:19.6060 | 104.148 mph |
20 | 5 | Takuma Sato | 21 | 0.0439 | 1.3530 | 1:19.6500 | 104.09 mph |
21 | 19 | Alex Lloyd | 18 | 0.2331 | 1.5861 | 1:19.8831 | 103.787 mph |
22 | 78 | Simona de Silvestro | 20 | 0.0967 | 1.6828 | 1:19.9797 | 103.661 mph |
23 | 7 | Danica Patrick | 18 | 0.0148 | 1.6976 | 1:19.9946 | 103.642 mph |
24 | 36 | Francesco Dracone | 23 | 2.5719 | 4.2695 | 1:22.5665 | 100.414 mph |
25 | 18 | Milka Duno | 23 | 1.3644 | 5.6339 | 1:23.9308 | 98.781 mph |