Detroit IndyCar: Rahal leads opening practice

On his 10^th lap, Rahal set a time of 1min15.3328sec, an average speed of 112.302mph around the 2.35-mile course to eclipse the fastest of the Penske-Chevrolets, driven by Helio Castroneves, by 0.1562sec.

Castroneves, who scored his last IndyCar win at this venue three years ago, beat teammate Josef Newgarden, Andretti Autosport-Honda’s fastest representative Alexander Rossi, and a third Penske, that of Will Power.

Marco Andretti gave a good account of himself to take sixth, just under 0.6sec off the top time, and 0.2 behind teammate Rossi.

Scott Dixon was on a flying lap that should have given him third fastest when he spun and stalled at Turn 13, bringing out the red flag with five minutes to go, leaving him in seventh, just ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda teammate Tony Kanaan.

Andretti’s Ryan Hunter-Reay and Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda’s James Hinchcliffe completed the Top 10.

Series debutant, ex-F1 racer Esteban Gutierrez, who is subbing for the injured Sebastien Bourdais in the #18 Dale Coyne Racing-Honda, did 10 straight laps at the start of the session. By the end of the 45-minute session he had completed 20 altogether and finished the session 2.9sec off the ultimate pace in 21^st. He did finish ahead of rookie teammate Ed Jones for whom this is also an unfamiliar course. 

Cla	#	Driver	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	15	Graham Rahal	15	1'15.3328			112.302
2	3	Helio Castroneves	12	1'15.4890	0.1562	0.1562	112.069
3	2	Josef Newgarden	13	1'15.5384	0.2056	0.0494	111.996
4	98	Alexander Rossi	13	1'15.7216	0.3888	0.1832	111.725
5	12	Will Power	15	1'15.8159	0.4831	0.0943	111.586
6	27	Marco Andretti	17	1'15.9159	0.5831	0.1000	111.439
7	9	Scott Dixon	11	1'15.9540	0.6212	0.0381	111.383
8	10	Tony Kanaan	13	1'15.9900	0.6572	0.0360	111.330
9	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	15	1'16.0130	0.6802	0.0230	111.297
10	5	James Hinchcliffe	14	1'16.0354	0.7026	0.0224	111.264
11	1	Simon Pagenaud	13	1'16.1781	0.8453	0.1427	111.056
12	26	Takuma Sato	11	1'16.2165	0.8837	0.0384	111.000
13	7	Mikhail Aleshin	16	1'16.3861	1.0533	0.1696	110.753
14	21	J.R. Hildebrand	18	1'16.4302	1.0974	0.0441	110.689
15	83	Charlie Kimball	15	1'16.4507	1.1179	0.0205	110.660
16	14	Carlos Munoz	17	1'16.6096	1.2768	0.1589	110.430
17	8	Max Chilton	19	1'16.7793	1.4465	0.1697	110.186
18	4	Conor Daly	18	1'16.9432	1.6104	0.1639	109.951
19	20	Spencer Pigot	17	1'17.0866	1.7538	0.1434	109.747
20	16	Oriol Servia	15	1'17.9734	2.6406	0.8868	108.499
21	18	Esteban Gutierrez	20	1'18.2289	2.8961	0.2555	108.144
22	19	Ed Jones	18	1'18.9603	3.6275	0.7314	107.142