UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Power on top in second practice

Castroneves returns for qualifying

Team Penske's Will Power headed the IndyCar Series' second practice at Long Beach. As Helio Castroneves is on his way to Long Beach to reclaim the #3 car, replacement Will Power ended his run in the Penske car in first position. Power will move to a third, newly-entered Penske Dallara-Honda for the rest of the weekend and the Indy 500.

Series champ Scott Dixon posted the second best time ahead of strong rookies Raphael Matos and Mike Conway. Qualification will take place today at 11 pm GMT.

Free practice 2 results:

1. Will Power Team Penske 1:10.5486
2. Scott Dixon Ganassi + 0.1192s
3. Raphael Matos Luczo Dragon + 0.2761s
4. Dan Wheldon Panther + 0.3547s
5. Mike Conway Dreyer & Reinbold + 0.4495s
6. Dario Franchitti Ganassi + 0.4732s
7. Ryan Hunter-Reay Vision + 0.4777s
8. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green + 0.5752s
9. Ryan Briscoe Team Penske + 0.5930s
10. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 0.6282s
11. EJ Viso HVM + 0.6734s
12. Justin Wilson Dale Coyne + 0.6833s
13. Darren Manning Dreyer & Reinbold + 0.6955s
14. Robert Doornbos Newman/Haas/Lanigan + 0.7059s
15. Mario Moraes KV + 0.7216s
16. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green + 1.0052s
17. Alex Tagliani Conquest + 1.0285s
18. Marco Andretti Andretti Green + 1.2494s
19. Vitor Meira Foyt + 1.6410s
20. Danica Patrick Andretti Green + 1.6768s
21. Ed Carpenter Vision + 1.9685s
22. Stanton Barrett 3G + 3.5257s

Driver quotes:

DARIO FRANCHITTI (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing, sixth): “I’m pretty happy. The Target car was good all day, right off the truck. I was very happy with our race pace. Hopefully we’ll have the qualifying pace when it counts as well. We didn’t run any new tires, so we don’t know what the car will be like balance-wise. Hopefully our new tires will be as good as the old tires and we’ll pick up the pace. I’m very happy. It’s good to be back in Long Beach.”

RYAN BRISCOE (No. 6 Team Penske, ninth): “It wasn’t the best opening day for the No. 6 Team Penske car. I had a little incident with the tire barrier in the second session that set us back a bit, but I still feel like we’ve got a good car. We’re going to make a few changes tonight and go for it tomorrow. We were second fastest in the first session today, which is really promising. I think we just need to find our rhythm again and we’ll be right back up at the front tomorrow.”

GRAHAM RAHAL (No. 02 McDonald’s Racing Team, 10th): “Overall it was a pretty good day. It seems like a bunch of guys ran new tires at the end and went a little bit quicker, and we didn’t really get a new tire run at all. When we tried to go out, I was locking my tires like crazy, so I really only got two laps on new tires, both of which I locked up in Turn 1 and blew the run away, so I just pitted. We’re still pretty happy with where we are. I think the McDonald’s team is competitive, but we still have a little ways to go. It’s tight, and it’s going to be tough.”

ROBERT DOORNBOS (No. 06 Newman/Haas/Lanigan): “We started off strong this morning. I haven’t seen this track for two years and by the third lap this morning we were P1 and stayed there for most of the session. It was looking good and we ended up sixth. We made some changes over lunch and we had a clutch issue so in the afternoon run it was slipping and burning. It was not a very good run, that’s why we are not very fast. We tried different downforce levels and I think we know where to concentrate our work for qualifying. It’s very competitive. Two-tenths of a second more and you are in the top-three. I think we know where to find that two-tenths. The downforce level is less in an Indy car than the Champ Car I drove here in 2007 so the braking points are different and you have to change your mindset about where they are now in an Indy car. I also just came from a really high level of downforce in an A1GP car so it’s an even bigger adjustment. We just have to work with it and improve the mechanical side.”

Written: Sat, 18 Apr 2009 13:35:41