ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Ryan Briscoe, the 2009 winner at St. Petersburg, topped the time chart in the practice preceding qualifications for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Briscoe, driving the No. 8 NTT Data car for Chip Ganassi Racing Teams, posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 2.4236 seconds on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn temporary street course. Helio Castroneves, a three-time winner of the Verizon IndyCar Series race, was .0494 of a second back in the No. 3 Team Penske car. Takuma Sato, who was quickest in the afternoon session March 28 in the No. 14 ABC Supply car for A.J. Foyt Racing, was third quick (1:02.5243).

“It’s tough conditions out there because of the wind. We make some set-up changes during the session and nothing really made an improvement," said Briscoe, who broke into the series with Chip Ganassi's team in 2005 and returns for the full season. "It definitely feels like there should be room for improvement, but with the wind in a different direction from yesterday it’s tough."

Click it: Practice 3 results || Combined practice results

The three rounds of knockout qualifications, including the Firestone Fast Six, begin at 2 p.m. (ET), with live Timing & Scoring augmented by Paul Page and the IMS Radio Network's broadcast on www.indycar.com and the INDYCAR 14 app.

Sebastien Bourdais holds the track record of 1:00.928 in qualifying for the 2003 race sanctioned by CART. Will Power of Team Penske has earned the pole the past four years.

Click it: Qualifying groups

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