Texas IndyCar: Marco Andretti fastest in first practice
Marco Andretti opened this weekend's IndyCar round at Texas Motor Speedway by setting the fastest time in the first practice session
Andretti went to the top early on with his 24.0440s effort to shade Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan by just 0.0412 seconds.
Will Power, James Jakes and Simona de Silvestro completed the top five.
Speeds were well up on last year, with the top nine cars all beating Alex Tagliani's 2012 pole lap of 215.691mph.
Andretti's fastest time was more than two miles per hour quicker at 217.950mph.
The session was interrupted three times for track inspections after two cars reported cut tyres.
One of those affected was reigning series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, who parked his car with 15 minutes remaining to avoid depleting his tyre allocation after sustaining damage to his right-front Firestone.
Pos Driver Team/Engine Time Gap 1. Marco Andretti Andretti/Chevy 24.0330s 2. Tony Kanaan KV/Chevy 24.0742s + 0.0412s 3. Will Power Penske/Chevy 24.1452s + 0.1122s 4. James Jakes Rahal/Honda 24.1577s + 0.1247s 5. Simona de Silvestro KV/Chevy 24.1652s + 0.1322s 6. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda 24.1702s + 0.1372s 7. Alex Tagliani Herta/Honda 24.1713s + 0.1383s 8. Dario Franchitti Ganassi/Honda 24.1996s + 0.1666s 9. Scott Dixon Ganassi/Honda 24.2812s + 0.2482s 10. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 24.3007s + 0.2677s 11. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Chevy 24.3087s + 0.2757s 12. EJ Viso Andretti/Chevy 24.3139s + 0.2809s 13. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Chevy 24.3798s + 0.3468s 14. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Honda 24.4297s + 0.3967s 15. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy 24.4308s + 0.3978s 16. Sebastian Bourdais Dragon/Chevy 24.4382s + 0.4052s 17. Ed Carpenter Carpenter/Chevy 24.4409s + 0.4079s 18. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 24.5239s + 0.4909s 19. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 24.5668s + 0.5338s 20. Oriol Servia Panther/Chevy 24.6126s + 0.5796s 21. Pippa Mann Coyne/Honda 24.7400s + 0.7070s 22. Tristan Vautier Schmidt/Honda 25.0667s + 1.0337s 23. Sebastian Saavedra Dragon/Chevy 25.1045s + 1.0715s 24. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 27.8116s + 3.7786s All drivers use Dallara DW12 chassis
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