Long Beach IndyCar: Dixon fastest in first practice
Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon topped the first practice session for the IndyCar Grand Prix of Long Beach on Friday morning.
Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Penske’s Simon Pagenaud set the early pace, before a brief red flag was required for Gabby Chaves stalling at the hairpin.
Andretti’s Ryan Hunter-Reay hit the top spot with 22mins to go, before Pagenaud grabbed it back.
Dixon was first to break the 1m09s barrier, with Alex Rossi pipping him almost immediately by two tenths – despite brushing a wall – lapping in 1m08.6077s.
Hunter-Reay was back on top with 15 minutes remaining with a lap of 1m08.4285s.
In the final 10 minutes, Dixon took P1 with 1m08.4112s and stayed at the top thereafter. Hunter-Reay remained second, ahead of teammate Rossi in a Honda 1-2-3.
“The car was fast right out of the box,” said Dixon. “It’s a big weekend for Honda here. These cars are so much fun to drive around here, it’s always fun to be pounding around the streets – just gotta keep it out of the walls!”
Pagenaud was the fastest of the Chevrolet-powered cars in fourth, ahead of James Hinchcliffe, Takuma Sato and Will Power.
Champion Josef Newgarden was eighth, with Tony Kanaan and Sebastien Bourdais rounding out the top 10.
There were a few more off-track excursions: Rossi locked up and went off down the escape road at Turn 9. Rookie Kyle Kaiser did likewise at Turn 1, and he stalled after performing a spin-turn – ending the session slowest.
Charlie Kimball also went off at Turn 9 and needed assistance in restarting, and Jack Harvey repeated that right at the end of the session.
IndyCar, Long Beach, first practice
Cla | # | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 14 | 1'08.4112 | 103.562 | ||
2 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 14 | 1'08.4285 | 0.0173 | 0.0173 | 103.536 |
3 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | 14 | 1'08.6077 | 0.1965 | 0.1792 | 103.265 |
4 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud | 18 | 1'08.7790 | 0.3678 | 0.1713 | 103.008 |
5 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | 12 | 1'08.9133 | 0.5021 | 0.1343 | 102.807 |
6 | 30 | Takuma Sato | 15 | 1'08.9295 | 0.5183 | 0.0162 | 102.783 |
7 | 12 | Will Power | 16 | 1'08.9481 | 0.5369 | 0.0186 | 102.756 |
8 | 1 | Josef Newgarden | 11 | 1'08.9600 | 0.5488 | 0.0119 | 102.738 |
9 | 14 | Tony Kanaan | 15 | 1'08.9675 | 0.5563 | 0.0075 | 102.727 |
10 | 18 | Sébastien Bourdais | 14 | 1'09.1270 | 0.7158 | 0.1595 | 102.490 |
11 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 15 | 1'09.2349 | 0.8237 | 0.1079 | 102.330 |
12 | 21 | Spencer Pigot | 11 | 1'09.2572 | 0.8460 | 0.0223 | 102.297 |
13 | 26 | Zach Veach | 13 | 1'09.2766 | 0.8654 | 0.0194 | 102.268 |
14 | 6 | Robert Wickens | 16 | 1'09.2807 | 0.8695 | 0.0041 | 102.262 |
15 | 20 | Jordan King | 17 | 1'09.3598 | 0.9486 | 0.0791 | 102.146 |
16 | 60 | Jack Harvey | 14 | 1'09.6034 | 1.1922 | 0.2436 | 101.788 |
17 | 10 | Ed Jones | 17 | 1'09.6060 | 1.1948 | 0.0026 | 101.784 |
18 | 59 | Max Chilton | 17 | 1'09.6271 | 1.2159 | 0.0211 | 101.753 |
19 | 19 | Zachary Claman DeMelo | 18 | 1'09.7486 | 1.3374 | 0.1215 | 101.576 |
20 | 98 | Marco Andretti | 12 | 1'09.7632 | 1.3520 | 0.0146 | 101.555 |
21 | 88 | Gabby Chaves | 13 | 1'09.8182 | 1.4070 | 0.0550 | 101.475 |
22 | 23 | Charlie Kimball | 14 | 1'10.0010 | 1.5898 | 0.1828 | 101.210 |
23 | 4 | Matheus Leist | 17 | 1'10.1979 | 1.7867 | 0.1969 | 100.926 |
24 | 32 | Kyle Kaiser | 19 | 1'10.7481 | 2.3369 | 0.5502 | 100.141 |
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