As we head for Wednesday’s break in the action from Sebring, the first group of IZOD IndyCar Series teams and drivers have completed their two days of testing in Florida. Chevrolet-powered drivers continued to hold control of the time sheets as the Bowtie Brigade swept the top 3 spots with the Team Penske trio.
Here’s your top 10 from this afternoon:
1. 3-Helio Castroneves (Chevy) — 52.1413 seconds/115.302 mph
2. 12-Will Power (Chevy) — 52.2059/115.159
3. 2-Ryan Briscoe (Chevy) — 52.2072/115.157
4. 28-Ryan Hunter-Reay (Chevy) — 52.3466/114.850
5. 77-Simon Pagenaud (Honda) — 52.4698/114.580
6. 18-Justin Wilson (Honda) — 52.6537/114.180
7. 19-James Jakes (Honda) — 52.8288/113.802
8. 26-Marco Andretti (Chevy) — 52.9656/113.508
9. 27-James Hinchcliffe (Chevy) — 53.0319/113.366
10. 78-Simona de Silvestro (Lotus) — 53.2312/112.941
Castroneves follows up his P2 showing on Monday with the fastest time on Tuesday, which was almost three-tenths faster than the lap he led this morning’s session with (a 52.3901). Also, Power was able to get back to his usual business after missing almost all of the morning run due to his team’s repair work on the No. 12 machine. Apparently, he also had a SECOND fire today as well according to the AP’s Jenna Fryer.
Meanwhile, Pagenaud continued to lead the way for Honda, which will have more of its teams out in force for the next two-day session at Sebring that starts Thursday. Considering that the Frenchman was only about three-tenths off Castroneves, it’ll be interesting to see what the likes of Chip Ganassi Racing can do.
As for Lotus, de Silvestro logged 64 laps on the day, but as pointed out by RACER.com’s Tony DiZinno, she’s the only driver that couldn’t come up with a sub-53 second lap over the last two days.
With that, here are the final combined practice times from Group 1 and when each driver got their best times during the session:
1. Castroneves — 52.1413 seconds (Tuesday afternoon)
2. Power — 52.2059 (Tuesday afternoon)
3. Briscoe — 52.2072 (Tuesday afternoon)
4. Hunter-Reay — 52.3466 (Tuesday afternoon)
5. Pagenaud — 52.4698 (Tuesday afternoon)
6. Wilson — 52.6537 (Tuesday afternoon)
7. Jakes — 52.8288 (Tuesday afternoon)
8. Hinchcliffe — 52.9125 (Monday afternoon)
9. Andretti — 52.9577 (Tuesday morning)
10. De Silvestro — 53.2312 (Tuesday afternoon)
As I mentioned earlier, a whole new cast of characters will be in Sebring on Thursday and Friday. They are:
CHEVROLET
4-J.R. Hildebrand (Panther)
5-E.J. Viso (KV)
8-Rubens Barrichello (KV)
11-Tony Kanaan (KV)
20-Ed Carpenter (Ed Carpenter)
HONDA
9-Scott Dixon (Ganassi)
10-Dario Franchitti (Ganassi)
14-Mike Conway (Foyt)
15-Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan)
38-Graham Rahal (Ganassi)
67-Josef Newgarden (Fisher/Hartman)
83-Charlie Kimball (Ganassi)
LOTUS
6-Katherine Legge (Dragon)
7-Sebastien Bourdais (Dragon)
22-Oriol Servia (Dreyer & Reinbold)
Alex Tagliani (Barracuda-BHA)
