Rahal sets pace in Mid-Ohio practice

August 5th, 2011

Graham Rahal set the pace in first practice for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio as the Ganassi driver went fastest on the final lap of the session.

The 22-year-old local driver’s time of 1m09.603s was some way short of the expected pace (Will Power’s pole lap last year was a 1m07.120s) and several drivers commented on the gripless nature of the dusty, unrubbered track. But Rahal’s time was still nearly half a second quicker than next man up EJ Viso.

Rahal was lucky to be in a position to set that time at all, having had to take avoiding action when he encountered Tony Kanaan’s KV Racing machine moving across the track on the back straight – the Ganassi car took to the grass momentarily.

Dario Franchitti, who moments before Rahal and Viso posted times had been fastest, was third quickest ahead of championship rival Will Power.

Justin Wilson meanwhile, who had been quickest for much of the session in newly-liveried Dreyer & Reinbold car, tumbled down the order to fifth in that final dash.

James Hinchcliffe was another to lose out in the final moments, having been up the sharp end right from the very beginning of the 75-minute session – which was restricted to just rookies and those outside the top ten in the standings for the first 45 minutes. He ended up an impressive sixth fastest in the fastest of the Newman/Haas cars.

Edmonton pole-sitter Takuma Sato was forced to sit out much of the session following an engine failure on his KV Racing machine, while Marco Andretti’s car spent much of his session in the garage. Neither man figured in the times.

Other incidents included an off for Sebastian Saavedra at Turn 2 which saw him beach his Conquest car in the gravel and spin for Ryan Briscoe on entry to Turn 6.

Results to follow.