Wheldon fastest

The 2005 champion was, as usual, in action for Ganassi Racing as the pack descended on the Homestead Speedway in Florida, and the 29-year-old Brit was immediately on form, lapping the oval circuit in 25.062 seconds.

"The announcement was great, but there's not anything significant in [going fastest on the same day of the announcement]," said Wheldon.

"When you get down to work, you have to make the most of it. If I win the race, I might feel something special, but not now."

Wheldon's time put him five thousandths of a second clear of his team-mate Scott Dixon, while Penske driver Helio Castroneves, his team-mate Ryan Briscoe and Andretti-Green Racing's Tony Kanaan were next up.

A surprising sixth quickest, on the day he re-signed with the Vision team, was AJ Foyt IV, while another grandson of a former Indy 500 winner Marco Andretti was next up.

AGR newcomer Hideki Mutoh - the man replacing champion Dario Franchitti in the team following the Briton's defection to NASCAR - was an impressive eighth while Ed Carpenter and Buddy Rice completed the top ten for Vision and Dreyer & Reinbold.

Britain's Darren Manning was 14th and slowest of the cars on track for Foyt Racing, while none of the ChampCar teams who have confirmed their switches to the series this season, were in action.