TORONTO, Canda — Dario Franchitti had a positive start to the Honda Indy Toronto race weekend at Exhibition Place.
The three-time defending IZOD IndyCar Series champion and defending Toronto race winner topped the first day of practice with a lap of 1:00.2786 (104.813 mph) in his No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Rookie Simon Pagenaud was second quick (1:00.3904) in the No. 77 Schmidt Hamilton HP Motorsports Honda. Franchitti's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, who was runner-up in the race last July, was third at 1:00.5423.
The top 21 cars, including Will Power in seventh place, were separated by 1 second. Practice (9:45 a.m. ET) and the three rounds of qualifications (1 p.m. ET) are scheduled for July 7.
Justin Wilson, the 2010 pole sitter, was fourth on the time chart (1:00.6485) in the No. 18 Sonny's BBQ car for Dale Coyne Racing and Ryan Briscoe (1:00.6936) was fifth in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske entry.
Wilson was involved in a pit lane incident early in the morning session when his car "refused to go into neutral" and slid into the No. 7 Dragon Racing car of Sebastien Bourdais.
Crew members Michael Cole of Dale Coyne Racing and Daniel Martin of Dragon Racing were treated and released from the infield care center. Raffi Aroyan of Dragon Racing was transported to St. Michael's Hospital for further evaluation, which revealed no injuries. Chuck Homan of Dragon Racing was treated at St. Michael's Hospital and released.
Toronto's James Hinchcliffe did not participate in the afternoon session because of a mechanical issue with the No. 27 GoDaddy.com car. The Andretti Autosport team will replace the Chevrolet engine, which will result in a 10-grid spot penalty for the July 8 race.
Quebec native Alex Tagliani, driving the No. 98 Team Barracuda-BHA car, also will incur a 10-grid spot penalty as the team chose to install its fourth fresh Honda engine of the season instead of refitting its Indianapolis 500 practice/qualifying engine after meeting the mileage limit of its Indianapolis 500 race engine (Rule 15.5.4.b violation). The No. 78 Lotus-HVM Racing car driven by Simona de Silvestro will receive a grid penalty because the team changed out the engine before it reached its mileage limit defined in Rule 15.5.1.
Also on July 6, Tristan Vautier posted the quickest lap of the afternoon session and overall (1 minute, 4.7297 seconds) on the last of his 27 laps. That knocked 2009 Toronto winner Sebastian Saavedra (1:04.8965) of Team AFS from the top of the time sheet.
Carlos Munoz, another first-time competitor at Exhibition Place, was third (1:05.0276) and Esteban Guerrieri, the 2011 race pole sitter and Firestone Indy Lights championship points leader, was fourth (1:05.0941). Oliver Webb, driving the No. 7 Lucas Oil/Sam Schmidt Motorsports car, was fifth (1:05.1199). The top nine cars were separated by 0.8968 of a second.
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16 38 Rahal, Graham D/H/F Practice 2 01:01.0666 103.461 29
17 5 Viso, EJ D/C/F Practice 1 01:01.1214 103.368 30
18 7 Bourdais, Sebastien D/C/F Practice 2 01:01.1248 103.362 32
13 11 Kanaan, Tony D/C/F Practice 2 01:00.9972 103.579 27
14 19 Jakes, James D/H/F Practice 2 01:01.0277 103.527 36
15 22 Servia, Oriol D/C/F Practice 2 01:01.0437 103.500 33
22 4 Hildebrand, JR D/C/F Practice 2 01:01.4655 102.789 34
23 27 Hinchcliffe, James D/C/F Practice 1 01:01.9272 102.023 14
24 20 Carpenter, Ed D/C/F Practice 2 01:02.1890 101.594 45
19 8 Barrichello, Rubens D/C/F Practice 2 01:01.1308 103.352 47
20 78 de Silvestro, Simona D/L/F Practice 2 01:01.1471 103.325 39
21 26 Andretti, Marco D/C/F Practice 2 01:01.1863 103.258 30
12 83 Kimball, Charlie D/H/F Practice 2 01:00.9382 103.679 35
4 18 Wilson, Justin D/H/F Practice 2 01:00.6485 104.174 18
5 2 Briscoe, Ryan D/C/F Practice 2 01:00.6936 104.097 27
3 9 Dixon, Scott D/H/F Practice 2 01:00.5423 104.357 29
1 10 Franchitti, Dario D/H/F Practice 2 01:00.2786 104.813 25
2 77 Pagenaud, Simon (R) D/H/F Practice 2 01:00.3904 104.619 35
6 3 Castroneves, Helio D/C/F Practice 2 01:00.7017 104.083 30
10 15 Sato, Takuma D/H/F Practice 2 01:00.8783 103.781 34
11 98 Tagliani, Alex D/H/F Practice 2 01:00.9297 103.693 26
9 28 Hunter-Reay, Ryan D/C/F Practice 2 01:00.8760 103.785 26
7 12 Power, Will D/C/F Practice 2 01:00.7817 103.946 27
8 14 Conway, Mike D/H/F Practice 2 01:00.8381 103.849 33
