KV Racing's Will Power was the undisputed leader of the day after having set the best time in both Friday's practices for the IndyCar Nikon Indy 300 that is taking place at Surfers Paradise in Australia. After battling it out with Justin Wilson in the morning, the Australian had to content with the attacks from Helio Castroneves, Dario Franchitti and his own teammate, Oriol Servia in the afternoon. Power has already taken two pole positions at Surfers Paradise when it was part of the former Champ Car schedule but, both times, bad luck on race day prevented the Aussie Vineyard's driver to make the best out of those poles. While Helio Castroneves finished second, he was still more than 1.3 seconds behind the best time of the day. Dario Franchitti maintained his earlier third place as his very impressive return to the IndyCar Series continued. Following his accident at the end of morning practice, Conquest Racing's Alex Tagliani had to sit out much of the second session and could only manage 13th, eight places down on his practice one position. Morning practice: Pos Driver Team Time 1. Will Power KV 1:36.3391 2. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:36.5607 + 0.2216 3. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 1:36.9904 + 0.6513 4. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1:37.0052 + 0.6661 5. Alex Tagliani Conquest 1:37.0625 + 0.7234 6. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 1:37.0650 + 0.7259 7. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 1:37.3127 + 0.9736 8. Oriol Servia KV 1:37.4146 + 1.0755 9. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1:37.5896 + 1.250510. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:37.6370 + 1.297911. Helio Castroneves Penske 1:37.6514 + 1.312312. EJ Viso HVM 1:38.3860 + 2.046913. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne 1:39.1186 + 2.779514. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman 1:39.1631 + 2.824015. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 1:39.4673 + 3.128216. Vitor Meira Foyt 1:39.7604 + 3.421317. AJ Foyt IV Vision 1:40.1178 + 3.778718. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 1:41.1604 + 4.821319. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold 1:41.1624 + 4.823320. Dan Wheldon Panther 1:42.0197 + 5.680621. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 1:42.5072 + 6.168122. Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold 1:42.6594 + 6.320323. Jaime Camara Conquest 1:42.8451 + 6.506024. Ed Carpenter Vision 1:43.0083 + 6.6692 Afternoon practice: 1. Will Power KV 1:34.8084 2. Helio Castroneves Penske 1:36.1609 + 1.3525 3. Dario Franchitti Ganassi 1:36.1712 + 1.3628 4. Oriol Servia KV 1:36.4394 + 1.6310 5. Graham Rahal Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:36.4963 + 1.6879 6. Justin Wilson Newman/Haas/Lanigan 1:36.5127 + 1.7043 7. Scott Dixon Ganassi 1:36.5812 + 1.7728 8. Ryan Hunter-Reay Rahal Letterman 1:36.8863 + 2.0779 9. Ryan Briscoe Penske 1:37.5183 + 2.709910. Tony Kanaan Andretti Green 1:37.5488 + 2.740411. Bruno Junqueira Dale Coyne 1:37.7709 + 2.962512. Mario Moraes Dale Coyne 1:38.6572 + 3.848813. Alex Tagliani Conquest 1:38.8099 + 4.001514. Hideki Mutoh Andretti Green 1:38.8353 + 4.026915. EJ Viso HVM 1:38.8784 + 4.070016. AJ Foyt IV Vision 1:39.0920 + 4.283617. Vitor Meira Foyt 1:39.1538 + 4.345418. Dan Wheldon Panther 1:39.8513 + 5.042919. Marco Andretti Andretti Green 1:39.8582 + 5.049820. Danica Patrick Andretti Green 1:40.0527 + 5.244321. Jaime Camara Conquest 1:40.4821 + 5.673722. Buddy Rice Dreyer & Reinbold 1:40.7196 + 5.911223. Ed Carpenter Vision 1:41.4711 + 6.666724. Townsend Bell Dreyer & Reinbold 1:41.5490 + 6.7406 photo: IRL - Shawn Payne
IRL: Will Power on top in Australia