Dixon paces opening Long Beach practice

Scott Dixon opened this weekend's Verizon IndyCar Series round at Long Beach by topping the times in the first practice session on Friday.

Dixon claimed the top spot with a fastest lap of 1m07.6357, while Penske's Helio Castroneves broke up a potential Honda 1-2-3 by popping up to second with a final timed lap just 0.1252s slower than that of his his Ganassi rival.

Castroneves' late push relegated St. Petersburg winner and early session leader Sebastien Bourdais back to third on the timing screens, with James Hinchcliffe and Will Power rounding out the top five.

Max Chilton came the closest to proving a dash of drama to an otherwise uneventful morning when he slowed with a suspected electrical problem. A firm diagnosis proved elusive when he ducked into the pits, and he returned to the track to ultimately complete 13 not-very-fast laps.

Elsewhere, his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Tony Kanaan almost gave his crew some extra work to do when he slid wide through a right-hander, but the car rotated just enough to limit the impact with the outside wall to a glancing blow to the right-rear tire.

Later, Castroneves also had his heart rate raised momentarily when he missed a braking spot and sacrificed a set of Firestones with the huge lock-up that immediately followed.

The IndyCar field is scheduled to return to the track for the second of today's 45-minute practice sessions at 2 p.m. PT.