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
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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