The Penske team has taken a clean sweep of the two-day test at the Barber Motorsport Park, with Hélio Castroneves following on from his team-mate Will Power’s efforts the day before by going quickest overall on the second day’s running.
The Brazilian eased out his team-mate Power by just two-hundredths of a second, while the third Penske of Ryan Briscoe was fourth-quickest.
Splitting the Australian drivers was Scott Dixon, with the Ganassi driver lapping fractionally quicker than Briscoe. The Newman/Haas entry of the currently out-of-contract Oriol Servià was fifth-fastest, with the Catalan doing his chances of securing a full-time drive no harm at all.
The schedule for the second day underwent a minor change after overnight rain, but the day’s two sessions were run in dry conditions, with Power lapping quickest in the morning, while Castroneves – who also had a spin – was fastest in the afternoon.
Former F1 racer Takuma Sato improved on his first day’s efforts to finish sixth-fastest in a specially-liveried car to honour the Japanese earthquake victims, with the KV Racing driver splitting the Newman/Haas entries, finishing one spot faster than James Hinchcliffe.
Marco Andretti also improved to finish eighth-fastest and the quickest of the Andretti Autosports entries, with team-mates Ryan Hunter-Reay (10th), Danica Patrick (13th) and Mike Conway (16th) not too far behind, although Conway ended his day early with a crash.
Dario Franchitti, however, had another off-the-pace day, struggling to get a set-up together and finishing down the order in 11th, almost a second slower than the two leading Penskes.
Barber Motorsport Park Pre-Season Test (Day 1 & 2) Lap Times:
Driver | Team | Time | ||
1. | Hélio Castroneves | ![]() |
Team Penske | 1:11.9434 |
2. | Will Power | ![]() |
Team Penske | + 0.0202 |
3. | Scott Dixon | ![]() |
Target Chip Ganassi | + 0.3381 |
4. | Ryan Briscoe | ![]() |
Team Penske | + 0.3520 |
5. | Oriol Servià | ![]() |
Newman/Haas Racing | + 0.4160 |
6. | Takuma Sato | ![]() |
KV Racing Technology Lotus | + 0.5308 |
7. | James Hinchcliffe | ![]() |
Newman/Haas Racing | + 0.5766 |
8. | Marco Andretti | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | + 0.5821 |
9. | Justin Wilson | ![]() |
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | + 0.7357 |
10. | Ryan Hunter-Reay | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | + 0.8315 |
11. | Dario Franchitti | ![]() |
Target Chip Ganassi | + 0.9013 |
12. | Alex Tagliani | ![]() |
Sam Schmidt Motorsports | + 0.9099 |
13. | Danica Patrick | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | + 1.0204 |
14. | Graham Rahal | ![]() |
Service Central Chip Ganassi | + 1.0370 |
15. | EJ Viso | ![]() |
KV Racing Technology Lotus | + 1.0736 |
16. | Mike Conway | ![]() |
Andretti Autosport | + 1.0904 |
17. | Vitor Meira | ![]() |
AJ Foyt Enterprises | + 1.1717 |
18. | Simona di Silvestro | ![]() |
HVM Racing | + 1.3237 |
19. | Sébastien Bourdais | ![]() |
Dale Coyne Racing | + 1.3470 |
20. | Charlie Kimball | ![]() |
Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi | + 1.3917 |
21. | James Jakes | ![]() |
Dale Coyne Racing | + 1.4889 |
22. | Sebastian Saavedra | ![]() |
Conquest Racing | + 1.7069 |
23. | Ana Beatriz | ![]() |
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing | + 1.9997 |
24. | JR Hildebrand | ![]() |
Panther Racing | + 2.6100 |
[Original image via IZOD IndyCar Series]
Richard Bailey
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