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Practice report

Indy 500: Power leads Penske 1-2 after first day

Will Power and Simon Pagenaud put Team Penske-Chevrolet at the top of the speed charts in the opening day of practice for the 103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge.

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

IndyCar Series

Power got a major tow to set his fastest speed of 229.745mph, on his 41st of 68 laps edging teammate and last weekend’s IndyCar Grand Prix winner Simon Pagenaud by a mere 0.043mph.

The defending Indy 500 winner said that his car’s handling was difficult in traffic at the start of the day as all teams had to adapt to the new Firestone rubber which has been designed to eliminate some of the confidence-sapping understeer that most drivers encountered in traffic last year. Once configured, Power said the #12 5G Verizon entry was much more comfortable in dirty air.

Running in a Penske ‘train’, Power and Pagenaud overcame Ed Carpenter’s morning time as well as their own teammate Helio Castroneves.

Colton Herta’s morning speed held up well, and he finished the day fifth, albeit causing the only non-debris related caution flag, when he spun exiting pitlane having “bit off more than I could chew” speed-wise on the warm-up lane. The rookie hit the brakes fast enough to keep the car from drifting onto the race surface proper as cars passed at 220mph-plus, although he burned a hole through one of his rear tires.

Sebastien Bourdais’ Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan entry was sixth ahead of a trio of Andretti Autosport-Hondas, led by Zach Veach.

Ed Jones in the Ed Carpenter Racing Scuderia Corsa entry finished 10th overall, but was fastest without the aid of a tow, clocking a 224.542mph.

Scott Dixon in the Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda set the fastest trap speed, heading up to Turn 1 at 236.128mph.

A gearbox issue that prevented Patricio O’Ward from going through his Rookie Orientation process in the early afternoon meant he wasn’t allowed to take part in the general practice from 3-6pm, so post-repairs, Carlin-Chevrolet teammate Max Chilton shook the car down for him, clocking a best lap about 1.3mph off his best time in his own car.

Weather allowing – and the forecast is not good – the track will open at 10.20am tomorrow, to allow O’Ward to go through the three phases of Rookie Orientation before practice is due to resume at 11am.

Alonso completed 50 laps, only one of which came in the afternoon, and he was 32nd on the speed charts. The problem was an electrical one, which persuaded McLaren to replace the whole wiring loom for tomorrow, coming as it did after an electrical problem stunted his test on April 24.

Cla # Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 12 Will Power Team Penske 68 39.1738     229.745
2 22 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske 81 39.1810 0.0072 0.0072 229.703
3 20 Ed Carpenter Ed Carpenter Racing 105 39.3610 0.1872 0.1800 228.653
4 3 Helio Castroneves Team Penske 67 39.3974 0.2236 0.0364 228.441
5 88 Colton Herta Harding Steinbrenner Racing 74 39.4246 0.2508 0.0272 228.284
6 18 Sébastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan 110 39.4318 0.2580 0.0072 228.242
7 26 Zach Veach Andretti Autosport 109 39.4506 0.2768 0.0188 228.133
8 27 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport 92 39.4631 0.2893 0.0125 228.061
9 98 Marco Andretti Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 81 39.4736 0.2998 0.0105 228.000
10 63 Ed Jones Ed Carpenter Racing 105 39.4795 0.3057 0.0059 227.966
11 21 Spencer Pigot Ed Carpenter Racing 128 39.5021 0.3283 0.0226 227.836
12 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 80 39.5358 0.3620 0.0337 227.642
13 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 97 39.5730 0.3992 0.0372 227.428
14 30 Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 90 39.6042 0.4304 0.0312 227.249
15 48 J.R. Hildebrand Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 113 39.6125 0.4387 0.0083 227.201
16 19 Santino Ferrucci Dale Coyne Racing 95 39.6330 0.4592 0.0205 227.083
17 2 Josef Newgarden Team Penske 60 39.6474 0.4736 0.0144 227.001
18 10 Felix Rosenqvist Chip Ganassi Racing 81 39.6774 0.5036 0.0300 226.829
19 25 Conor Daly Andretti Autosport 99 39.6963 0.5225 0.0189 226.721
20 15 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 90 39.7354 0.5616 0.0391 226.498
21 32 Kyle Kaiser Juncos Racing 10 39.7509 0.5771 0.0155 226.410
22 23 Charlie Kimball Carlin 69 39.8507 0.6769 0.0998 225.843
23 7 James Hinchcliffe Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 5 39.9117 0.7379 0.0610 225.498
24 14 Tony Kanaan A.J. Foyt Enterprises 66 39.9161 0.7423 0.0044 225.473
25 5 James Hinchcliffe Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 99 39.9582 0.7844 0.0421 225.235
26 60 Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing with Arrow SPM 85 39.9641 0.7903 0.0059 225.202
27 59 Max Chilton Carlin 76 40.0274 0.8536 0.0633 224.846
28 77 James Hinchcliffe Team Stange Racing with Arrow Schmidt Peterson 6 40.0369 0.8631 0.0095 224.793
29 7 Marcus Ericsson Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 83 40.0532 0.8794 0.0163 224.701
30 24 Sage Karam Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 32 40.0686 0.8948 0.0154 224.615
31 4 Matheus Leist A.J. Foyt Enterprises 85 40.1150 0.9412 0.0464 224.355
32 66 Fernando Alonso McLaren Racing 50 40.1496 0.9758 0.0346 224.162
33 42 Jordan King Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 42 40.1834 1.0096 0.0338 223.973
34 39 Pippa Mann Clauson-Marshall Racing 25 40.1948 1.0210 0.0114 223.910
35 31 Patricio O'Ward Carlin 13 40.2646 1.0908 0.0698 223.521
36 33 James Davison Dale Coyne Racing with Byrd and Belardi 30 40.2660 1.0922 0.0014 223.514
37 77 Oriol Servia Team Stange Racing with Arrow Schmidt Peterson 60 40.3063 1.1325 0.0403 223.290
38 81 Ben Hanley DragonSpeed 14 40.6235 1.4497 0.3172 221.547
39 60 James Hinchcliffe Meyer Shank Racing with Arrow SPM 5 40.8157 1.6419 0.1922 220.503
 

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