Portland IndyCar: Bourdais tops times, then shunts

Bourdais’ Dale Coyne Racing-Honda had just edged hitherto pacesetter Will Power of Team Penske-Chevrolet by 0.0289sec when he locked up going into the final corner, the car went off and straight into the tire wall.

However, the Coyne crew was able to change just his nose section to allow him to participate in the 'warm-up'/pitstop practice session that followed.

The frontrunners were able to run their red tires in FP2 but likely didn’t get the best of them as Bourdais’ time on the alternate compound was some 0.5sec off Colton Herta’s top time of the morning set on primary tires.

Bourdais’ incident was similar to that suffered by compatriot and current P2 holder in the championship, Penske’s Simon Pagenaud, who locked up and slid off the track at the same corner but was able to alter his trajectory in time to avoid the tire wall.

He would end up seventh, behind top rookies Felix Rosenqvist and Colton Herta in third and fourth, and fellow title protagonists Josef Newgarden and Alexander Rossi.

Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey did a fine job to clock P8 just ahead of semi-teammate James Hinchcliffe of Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, and last year’s Portland winner (and last week’s Gateway winner) Takuma Sato of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda.

Scott Dixon was only 11^thin the second Ganassi machine, while series returnee Conor Daly was 21^st, this time within half a second of temporary teammate Hinchcliffe.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Mph
1	Sébastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	12	57.9213			122.069
2	Will Power	Team Penske	15	57.9502	0.0289	0.0289	122.008
3	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	20	58.0602	0.1389	0.110	121.777
4	Colton Herta	Harding Racing	14	58.0848	0.1635	0.0246	121.725
5	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	17	58.0969	0.1756	0.0121	121.700
6	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	13	58.2102	0.2889	0.1133	121.463
7	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	11	58.2207	0.2994	0.0105	121.441
8	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing with Arrow SPM	22	58.2489	0.3276	0.0282	121.383
9	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	13	58.2791	0.3578	0.0302	121.320
10	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	58.2856	0.3643	0.0065	121.306
11	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	13	58.3076	0.3863	0.0220	121.260
12	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing	15	58.3372	0.4159	0.0296	121.199
13	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	14	58.3623	0.4410	0.0251	121.147
14	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	17	58.4438	0.5225	0.0815	120.978
15	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	17	58.4611	0.5398	0.0173	120.942
16	Matheus Leist	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	17	58.4662	0.5449	0.0051	120.931
17	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	12	58.5242	0.6029	0.0580	120.812
18	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	17	58.6058	0.6845	0.0816	120.643
19	Ed Jones	Ed Carpenter Racing	17	58.6180	0.6967	0.0122	120.618
20	Max Chilton	Carlin	14	58.6382	0.7169	0.0202	120.577
21	Conor Daly	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	15	58.7111	0.7898	0.0729	120.427
22	Charlie Kimball	Carlin	17	58.8291	0.9078	0.1180	120.185
23	Tony Kanaan	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	12	58.8398	0.9185	0.0107	120.164
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