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IndyCar
INDYCAR: Power Fastest Friday At St. Petersburg
Chevy places 8 of its 13 cars inside the top 10 as Team Penske's Will Power leads second practice ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay and Simona de Silvestro.
Will Power blasted between the barriers at St. Pete on Friday to set the fastest lap for Team Penske and Chevrolet. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
Overcast skies kept track temperatures in check during the second and final IZOD IndyCar Series practice session on Friday, but it did little to change the running order after 45 minutes of action.
Chevy placed 8 of its 13 cars inside the top 10 as Team Penske's Will Power led Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay and KV Racing's Simona de Silvestro.
Power's 01:01.446-second lap around the 1.8-mile street circuit was .178 faster than RHR could manage, but the defending pole winner sees more room for improvement with qualifying set for Saturday.
"It's the same track, fighting the same handling problems," Power told SPEED.com. "We got a good run in on new tires early on, and there's some stiff competition of guys putting up big laps on old tires. We've still got some work to do."
Hunter-Reay went P1 in the morning and P2 in the afternoon, showing strong form as he starts his championship defense.
"It's the first day of a long, long season, so I'm definitely not counting anything yet," he said. "The team have done an amazing job of preparing the car."
Track conditions weren't bad, but RHR says a lot of time was spent chasing the right balance.
"Right now it's pretty green, and we were surprised by that," he confirmed. "It's getting there, just like a regular progression on a street course. We're slowly creeping up on it."
De Silvestro's return to St. Pete with a proper engine delivered better-than-expected results.
“It’s a big difference," she said, referring to the switch from Lotus in 2012 to Chevy in 2013. "Last year we came in here and we knew it was going to be a struggle, and this year we come after a really good Barber test and it showed right away. Even this morning I thought we were pretty quick even if we still have a little bit of work to do on the car. It’s definitely a relief to know we can be fast and we can be right up there with the other guys.”
Panther DRR's Oriol Servia carried the team's strong pre-season form into St. Pete, posting a 1:01.765 to take fourth.
"In the morning I told them we were headed the right way," said the Spaniard. "We were P16, but the car felt good. For this afternoon, we guessed a little bit better than the others. We're really starting to feel the effects of working as a two-car team, and today you saw the benefit."
A.J. Foyt Racing's Takuma Sato completed the top 5, giving the Japanese driver a boost with his new team.
“It was a very productive day for us," he said. "The first session the ABC Supply car was a little bit outside of the balance that we wanted but we made a good improvement over the lunch break and the car felt much better in the afternoon. We tested a couple things and got some good information so hopefully tomorrow we can make another step forward.”
PHOTOS: Click Here or on the image below to view INDYCAR: St. Petersburg 2013
Behind Sato, notables included Andretti's James Hinchcliffe in eighth. The Canadian was down from second in P1, but was pleased with what he and the team learned in the afternoon.
"With having four different cars on the team, we can try four different things in practice and come together afterwards and pick what worked best to go forward with," he said. "If you look at where all our cars were, we learned beneficial things, even though we set different times, and we'll come back faster tomorrow."
Rookie Tristan Vautier was ninth with a 1:02.045, and the second of two Hondas in the top 10. The Frenchman was slightly faster than his teammate Simon Pagenaud who set a 1:02.113 which was only good enough for 12th.
"Today was a big change for me doing my first official practice session in the big cars after coming from Firestone Indy Lights," he said. "The car moves more, and there’s more power, so it’s a lot more work. You have to work really hard to put everything together. I think we did alright though and we’ll try to keep making progress tomorrow. Our second session today was much better than the first, so we want to keep that trend going tomorrow. It was a lot of fun though!"
The Target Ganassi Honda drivers has a dismal second session, with Dario Franchitti (17th) and Scott Dixon (19th) a full second off of Power's best.
“The Target car felt reasonable," said Franchitti. "It was actually better than it was in this morning’s session. It just didn’t have the speed in it we’re looking for. It looks like we’re going to have a busy night.”
Chevy placed 8 of its 13 cars inside the top 10 as Team Penske's Will Power led Andretti Autosport's Ryan Hunter-Reay and KV Racing's Simona de Silvestro.
Power's 01:01.446-second lap around the 1.8-mile street circuit was .178 faster than RHR could manage, but the defending pole winner sees more room for improvement with qualifying set for Saturday.
"It's the same track, fighting the same handling problems," Power told SPEED.com. "We got a good run in on new tires early on, and there's some stiff competition of guys putting up big laps on old tires. We've still got some work to do."
Hunter-Reay went P1 in the morning and P2 in the afternoon, showing strong form as he starts his championship defense.
"It's the first day of a long, long season, so I'm definitely not counting anything yet," he said. "The team have done an amazing job of preparing the car."
Track conditions weren't bad, but RHR says a lot of time was spent chasing the right balance.
"Right now it's pretty green, and we were surprised by that," he confirmed. "It's getting there, just like a regular progression on a street course. We're slowly creeping up on it."
De Silvestro's return to St. Pete with a proper engine delivered better-than-expected results.
“It’s a big difference," she said, referring to the switch from Lotus in 2012 to Chevy in 2013. "Last year we came in here and we knew it was going to be a struggle, and this year we come after a really good Barber test and it showed right away. Even this morning I thought we were pretty quick even if we still have a little bit of work to do on the car. It’s definitely a relief to know we can be fast and we can be right up there with the other guys.”
Panther DRR's Oriol Servia carried the team's strong pre-season form into St. Pete, posting a 1:01.765 to take fourth.
"In the morning I told them we were headed the right way," said the Spaniard. "We were P16, but the car felt good. For this afternoon, we guessed a little bit better than the others. We're really starting to feel the effects of working as a two-car team, and today you saw the benefit."
A.J. Foyt Racing's Takuma Sato completed the top 5, giving the Japanese driver a boost with his new team.
“It was a very productive day for us," he said. "The first session the ABC Supply car was a little bit outside of the balance that we wanted but we made a good improvement over the lunch break and the car felt much better in the afternoon. We tested a couple things and got some good information so hopefully tomorrow we can make another step forward.”
PHOTOS: Click Here or on the image below to view INDYCAR: St. Petersburg 2013
Behind Sato, notables included Andretti's James Hinchcliffe in eighth. The Canadian was down from second in P1, but was pleased with what he and the team learned in the afternoon.
"With having four different cars on the team, we can try four different things in practice and come together afterwards and pick what worked best to go forward with," he said. "If you look at where all our cars were, we learned beneficial things, even though we set different times, and we'll come back faster tomorrow."
Rookie Tristan Vautier was ninth with a 1:02.045, and the second of two Hondas in the top 10. The Frenchman was slightly faster than his teammate Simon Pagenaud who set a 1:02.113 which was only good enough for 12th.
"Today was a big change for me doing my first official practice session in the big cars after coming from Firestone Indy Lights," he said. "The car moves more, and there’s more power, so it’s a lot more work. You have to work really hard to put everything together. I think we did alright though and we’ll try to keep making progress tomorrow. Our second session today was much better than the first, so we want to keep that trend going tomorrow. It was a lot of fun though!"
The Target Ganassi Honda drivers has a dismal second session, with Dario Franchitti (17th) and Scott Dixon (19th) a full second off of Power's best.
“The Target car felt reasonable," said Franchitti. "It was actually better than it was in this morning’s session. It just didn’t have the speed in it we’re looking for. It looks like we’re going to have a busy night.”
INDYCAR BRAZIL
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