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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Power, Chevy Lead Friday At Sonoma
Team Penske's Will Power led teammate Ryan Briscoe on Friday at Sonoma, followed by Simon Pagenaud and Dario Franchitti.
After ending last week's Sonoma test a bit off the pace, Will Power and Team Penske rebounded on Friday. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
A week ago in testing at Sonoma, Team Penske's Will Power came away feeling pleased with his pace, but knew there was more work to be done after coming up almost a half-second short on the stopwatch behind Target Chip Ganassi Racing Scott Dixon.
Seven days later, the Aussie returned with a setup that moved him to the top of the 27-car field during the opening IZOD IndyCar Series practice session, posting a 1:18.68-second lap to lead Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe by .18 seconds.
The revised 12-turn, 2.31-mile permanent road course wasn't perfect today--gusts of wind made things interesting as cars crested the hilly circuit--but it also made for some spectacular slides.
"That was tough, [Turn] 3a especially," said Power of the corner where he crashed and injured his back three years ago. "I had a few crossed-up moments. Immediately 2009 flashed in my head," he said with a laugh.
"I didn't want to spin there, but everyone's in the same boat, too. It's actually the wind direction at the moment that's made it more difficult over the top. It's hard, man. It's fast and it's hard and it's blind. You have the compression and then an un-compression. I bet you saw a lot of people hanging it out there."
A move to the latest Gen 8 Chevy engine was nothing but a plus for Briscoe, who has a few slides of his own across Turn 3a.
"We got a fresh Chevrolet engine in the No. 2 car this weekend that’s feeling good, and I’m feeling good," he said. "We definitely want to win, so we’ll see what we can do.”
Behind Penske's 1-2 for Chevrolet, Simon Pagenaud led a Honda 3-4, posting a 1:18.92-second lap to edge defending series champion Dario Franchitti's 1:19.03-second tour.
“It was a good start to the weekend," said Pagenaud. "The HP team has done a good job preparing the car. It feels better and we’re faster than we were at the test. I know we have a good car, so we’ll just work on making it better for qualifying.”
Franchitti was a bit more philosophical about his session.
“Our day wasn’t bad, really," he said. "We still have some work to do but judging by the times there were others a lot worse off than we were today. The track conditions changed a lot from what we saw at the test so that was challenging today.”
PHOTOS: Click Here or on the image below to view INDYCAR: Sonoma Friday 2012
Possibly the most impressive performance of the day went to Rubens Barrichello who placed fifth in his Chevy-powered KV Racing entry.
The Brazilian's 1:19.40-second lap was a significant .71 seconds off of Power's best lap, but it still represented a major improvement for the F1 veteran's early weekend pace.
Barrichello was also the only driver inside the top 10 who did not test at Sonoma last week.
"It was a good day," he said. "We were slightly concerned by not testing here last week that we would have a lot of work to do, but having tested on the old layout back in February I was able to adapt quickly. I hope we can keep on running good like we did today for the rest of the weekend."
Of the notables outside the top 5, Sebastien Bourdais continued his recent form in sixth and Scott Dixon was a somewhat surprising seventh, .76 seconds off Power after showing so much speed last Friday.
“It was a decent start to the weekend for the Target team," said Dixon. "We were really loose in the first practice session and couldn’t figure out why. We went a different direction from the test last week and hope we can get back to where we need to be before qualifying tomorrow.”
Marco Andretti surprised at his second consecutive road course, topping the four-car Andretti Autosport team on Friday in ninth. Sebastian Saavedra, his teammate for the weekend, also impressed, placing 10th.
Seven days later, the Aussie returned with a setup that moved him to the top of the 27-car field during the opening IZOD IndyCar Series practice session, posting a 1:18.68-second lap to lead Penske teammate Ryan Briscoe by .18 seconds.
The revised 12-turn, 2.31-mile permanent road course wasn't perfect today--gusts of wind made things interesting as cars crested the hilly circuit--but it also made for some spectacular slides.
"That was tough, [Turn] 3a especially," said Power of the corner where he crashed and injured his back three years ago. "I had a few crossed-up moments. Immediately 2009 flashed in my head," he said with a laugh.
"I didn't want to spin there, but everyone's in the same boat, too. It's actually the wind direction at the moment that's made it more difficult over the top. It's hard, man. It's fast and it's hard and it's blind. You have the compression and then an un-compression. I bet you saw a lot of people hanging it out there."
A move to the latest Gen 8 Chevy engine was nothing but a plus for Briscoe, who has a few slides of his own across Turn 3a.
"We got a fresh Chevrolet engine in the No. 2 car this weekend that’s feeling good, and I’m feeling good," he said. "We definitely want to win, so we’ll see what we can do.”
Behind Penske's 1-2 for Chevrolet, Simon Pagenaud led a Honda 3-4, posting a 1:18.92-second lap to edge defending series champion Dario Franchitti's 1:19.03-second tour.
“It was a good start to the weekend," said Pagenaud. "The HP team has done a good job preparing the car. It feels better and we’re faster than we were at the test. I know we have a good car, so we’ll just work on making it better for qualifying.”
Franchitti was a bit more philosophical about his session.
“Our day wasn’t bad, really," he said. "We still have some work to do but judging by the times there were others a lot worse off than we were today. The track conditions changed a lot from what we saw at the test so that was challenging today.”
PHOTOS: Click Here or on the image below to view INDYCAR: Sonoma Friday 2012
Possibly the most impressive performance of the day went to Rubens Barrichello who placed fifth in his Chevy-powered KV Racing entry.
The Brazilian's 1:19.40-second lap was a significant .71 seconds off of Power's best lap, but it still represented a major improvement for the F1 veteran's early weekend pace.
Barrichello was also the only driver inside the top 10 who did not test at Sonoma last week.
"It was a good day," he said. "We were slightly concerned by not testing here last week that we would have a lot of work to do, but having tested on the old layout back in February I was able to adapt quickly. I hope we can keep on running good like we did today for the rest of the weekend."
Of the notables outside the top 5, Sebastien Bourdais continued his recent form in sixth and Scott Dixon was a somewhat surprising seventh, .76 seconds off Power after showing so much speed last Friday.
“It was a decent start to the weekend for the Target team," said Dixon. "We were really loose in the first practice session and couldn’t figure out why. We went a different direction from the test last week and hope we can get back to where we need to be before qualifying tomorrow.”
Marco Andretti surprised at his second consecutive road course, topping the four-car Andretti Autosport team on Friday in ninth. Sebastian Saavedra, his teammate for the weekend, also impressed, placing 10th.
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