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INDYCAR: Hunter-Reay Leads Opening Practice At St. Pete
Reigning IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay led an Andretti Autosport 1-2-4 in the opening practice session of the season.
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted March 22, 2013  
Ryan Hunter-Reay topped P1 at St. Petersburg. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)
Reigning IZOD IndyCar Series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay led an Andretti Autosport 1-2-4 in the opening practice session of the season that saw 2012 manufacturers' champions Chevrolet place eight cars inside the top 10.

RHR's 1:02.453 was a scant .001 seconds faster than teammate James Hinchcliffe as the Andretti duo ended the session with the newest member of the stable, E.J. Viso, .12 seconds behind in fourth. Team Penske's Will Power was sandwiched between Hinchcliffe and Viso in third, setting a 1:02.546-second lap around the 1.8-mile temporary street course.

KV Racing's Tony Kanaan completed the top 5 with a 1:02.611, while Target Chip Ganassi Racing's Dario Franchitti took sixth, the first of the Honda-powered cars.

Franchitti's gap to RHR wasn't massive--just .228 seconds--but the strong showing by the Bowtie brigade tickled the fears that Chevy had done its homework during the off-season.

Other notables during the session included Simona de Silvestro in seventh, Josef Newgarden in eighth, James Jakes in 12th, rookie Tristan Vautier in 13th, Scott Dixon a surprising 14th and Graham Rahal, who only had partial throttle during the session, down in 23rd.

Rank, Car #, Driver, Fast Lap, Gap
1 1 Hunter-Reay, Ryan D/C/F 01:02.4534
2 27 Hinchcliffe, James D/C/F 01:02.4544
3 12 Power, Will D/C/F 01:02.5464 0.0920
4 5 Viso, EJ D/C/F 01:02.5759 0.1225
5 11 Kanaan, Tony D/C/F 01:02.6114 0.1580
6 10 Franchitti, Dario D/H/F 01:02.6823 0.2289
7 78 de Silvestro, Simona D/C/F 01:02.6950 0.2416
8 67 Newgarden, Josef D/H/F 01:02.7308 0.2774
9 7 Bourdais, Sebastien D/C/F 01:02.8867 0.4333
10 25 Andretti, Marco D/C/F 01:02.9252 0.4718
11 3 Castroneves, Helio D/C/F 01:02.9298 0.4764
12 16 Jakes, James D/H/F 01:02.9889 0.5355
13 55 Vautier, Tristan (R) D/H/F 01:03.0350 0.5816
14 9 Dixon, Scott D/H/F 01:03.0577 0.6043
15 83 Kimball, Charlie D/H/F 01:03.0971 0.6437
16 22 Servia, Oriol D/C/F 01:03.1281 0.6747
17 4 Hildebrand, JR D/C/F 01:03.1421 0.6887
18 14 Sato, Takuma D/H/F 01:03.1997 0.7463
19 19 Wilson, Justin D/H/F 01:03.2089 0.7555
20 77 Pagenaud, Simon D/H/F 01:03.2320 0.7786
21 6 Saavedra, Sebastian D/C/F 01:03.3909 0.9375
22 98 Tagliani, Alex D/H/F 01:03.4498 0.9964
23 15 Rahal, Graham D/H/F 01:03.7855 1.3321
24 20 Carpenter, Ed D/C/F 01:04.0139 1.5605
25 18 Beatriz, Ana D/H/F 01:04.6239 2.1705

Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, covering IndyCar and sports cars. Now in his 27th year in the sport, Pruett was an open-wheel mechanic, engineer and manager before joining SPEED. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.
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