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Practice report

Indy 500 Practice: Hinchcliffe heads strong day for Andretti

James Hinchcliffe led an Andretti Autosport-Honda 1-2-4 on opening practice day for the 104th Running of the Indianapolis 500, also clocking second fastest speed without the aid of a tow.

James Hinchcliffe, Andretti Autosport Honda

James Hinchcliffe, Andretti Autosport Honda

Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images

The 2016 pole-winner, in only his third outing of the year, turned 224.526mph average in the Genesys car on his 35th of 80 laps in the afternoon session to edge teammate Marco Andretti by 0.18mph.

Similarly impressive was his no-tow speed of 220.732mph, a mere 0.003mph slower than teammate and 2014 Indy winner Ryan Hunter-Reay who ended the day fourth fastest overall.

The non Andretti interloper in the top four was 2008 Indy winner Scott Dixon in the Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, while Fernando Alonso made a strong return to the Speedway, setting fifth fastest time – and top Chevrolet runner – just ahead of Josef Newgarden in the fastest of the Team Penske cars.

Although Newgarden’s Indy-winning teammates Helio Castroneves, Simon Pagenaud and Will Power were down in 10th, 12th and 23rd respectively, NBC Sports revealed that Power, Castroneves and Newgarden had topped the average speeds over 30 laps, or one full stint.

Top rookie honors went to Alex Palou of Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh in eighth place, while Conor Daly was top of the traditionally pole-challenging team of Ed Carpenter Racing.

Tony Kanaan took a run in Dalton Kellett’s car just to reassure the Canadian rookie that all was well with the car, and Kellett duly completed his Rookie Orientation Practice, something he hadn’t quite done in the early afternoon session.

Their teammate Charlie Kimball had a slightly alarming brush with the Turn 2 wall – on corner entry, curiously – but that was the closest anyone came to causing a yellow. The other caution periods were for track inspections.

After the end of practice, Ben Hanley in the DragonSpeed car, who hadn’t turned a lap throughout the day, was allowed out alone on track for a shakedown and to run his Refresher course.

Weather allowing, action resumes tomorrow morning at 11am local (Eastern) time with six-and-a-half hours available to all 33 runners.

Indy 500 practice Day 1

P No Name FTime Diff Gap FL Laps FSpeed Engine Team
1 29 James Hinchcliffe 40.084 --.---- --.---- 35 80 224.526 Honda Andretti Autosport
2 98 Marco Andretti 40.117 0.0324 0.0324 50 96 224.345 Honda Andretti Herta with Marco & Curb-Agajanian
3 9 Scott Dixon 40.170 0.0858 0.0534 30 61 224.047 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
4 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 40.297 0.2128 0.1270 60 81 223.341 Honda Andretti Autosport
5 66 Fernando Alonso 40.316 0.2314 0.0186 8 29 223.238 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
6 1 Josef Newgarden 40.325 0.2404 0.0090 35 82 223.188 Chevy Team Penske
7 60 Jack Harvey 40.327 0.2422 0.0018 65 107 223.178 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
8 55 Alex Palou 40.336 0.2512 0.0090 35 60 223.128 Honda Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh
9 47 Conor Daly 40.355 0.2708 0.0196 41 80 223.020 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
10 3 Helio Castroneves 40.372 0.2872 0.0164 4 62 222.929 Chevy Team Penske
11 14 Tony Kanaan 40.382 0.2974 0.0102 53 58 222.873 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
12 22 Simon Pagenaud 40.386 0.3017 0.0043 73 112 222.849 Chevy Team Penske
13 30 Takuma Sato 40.440 0.3557 0.0540 42 84 222.551 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
14 10 Felix Rosenqvist 40.442 0.3576 0.0019 60 89 222.541 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
15 4 Charlie Kimball 40.461 0.3763 0.0187 96 102 222.438 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
16 21 Rinus VeeKay 40.529 0.4450 0.0687 15 76 222.061 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
17 24 Sage Karam 40.535 0.4505 0.0055 40 46 222.031 Chevy Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
18 27 Alexander Rossi 40.549 0.4649 0.0144 53 77 221.952 Honda Andretti Autosport
19 18 Santino Ferrucci 40.558 0.4735 0.0086 66 87 221.905 Honda Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
20 20 Ed Carpenter 40.575 0.4904 0.0169 38 102 221.813 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
21 51 James Davison 40.594 0.5093 0.0189 4 36 221.709 Honda Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing/Byrd/Belardi
22 88 Colton Herta 40.596 0.5111 0.0018 39 91 221.699 Honda Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport
23 12 Will Power 40.608 0.5231 0.0120 15 124 221.634 Chevy Team Penske
24 8 Marcus Ericsson 40.616 0.5316 0.0085 104 129 221.588 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
25 15 Graham Rahal 40.632 0.5481 0.0165 91 111 221.498 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
26 45 Spencer Pigot 40.634 0.5492 0.0011 72 81 221.492 Honda RLL with Citrone/Buhl Autosport
27 26 Zach Veach 40.658 0.5736 0.0244 18 98 221.359 Honda Andretti Autosport
28 5 Pato O'Ward 40.661 0.5769 0.0033 10 55 221.341 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
29 59 Max Chilton 40.697 0.6125 0.0356 6 36 221.147 Chevy Carlin
30 41 Dalton Kellett 40.756 0.6719 0.0594 20 26 220.825 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
31 7 Oliver Askew 40.885 0.8006 0.1287 27 51 220.130 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
32 67 JR Hildebrand 40.935 0.8510 0.0504 5 29 219.859 Chevy Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
33 41 Tony Kanaan 41.227 1.1422 0.2912 5 6 218.306 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
34 81 Ben Hanley No Time --- --- -- --- --- Chevy DragonSpeed USA

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