Sonoma IndyCar: Newgarden on top in opening practice
Championship leader Josef Newgarden threw down the gauntlet to his Team Penske-Chevrolet teammates and title rivals by topping opening practice for the 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series finale.
Photo by: IndyCar Series
Newgarden, who has twice started from the front row at Sonoma Raceway, edged teammate Will Power – a five-time polesitter here – by 0.0372sec with his second flying lap of the morning. His 1min16.3950sec best equated to an average of 112.390mph around the 2.385-mile course.
Their teammate Simon Pagenaud, who dominated at Sonoma last year on his #98 Andretti Autosport entry, less than a tenth slower than Pagenaud.
Sebastien Bourdais (Dale Coyne Racing-Honda) was fifth, showing a clear return to form since his comeback from his fearsome Indianapolis injuries. He was just ahead of fellow four-time US open-wheel champion Scott Dixon, who is gunning for his fifth title this weekend, and arrives just three points behind Newgarden.
Ryan Hunter-Reay and Marco Andretti made it three Andretti Autosport cars in the top 10, separated by Brazilians Helio Castroneves (Penske) and Tony Kanaan (Ganassi).
Takuma Sato’s crew rebuilt his #26 car’s left-rear corner after his shunt in practice yesterday, and he wound up 12th.
Jack Harvey, making his second road course IndyCar start, was 20th, just half a second slower than Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammate James Hinchcliffe.
Indy Lights ace Zachary Claman DeMelo, making his IndyCar debut this weekend was 1.55sec off the pace and 1sec slower than Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda teammate Graham Rahal.
IndyCar, Sonoma FP1
Cla | # | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 8 | 1'16.3950 | 112.390 | ||
2 | 12 | Will Power | 10 | 1'16.4322 | 0.0372 | 0.0372 | 112.335 |
3 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud | 10 | 1'16.5047 | 0.1097 | 0.0725 | 112.228 |
4 | 98 | Alexander Rossi | 13 | 1'16.5720 | 0.1770 | 0.0673 | 112.130 |
5 | 18 | Sébastien Bourdais | 15 | 1'16.6060 | 0.2110 | 0.0340 | 112.080 |
6 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 10 | 1'16.6197 | 0.2247 | 0.0137 | 112.060 |
7 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 9 | 1'16.6711 | 0.2761 | 0.0514 | 111.985 |
8 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | 7 | 1'16.7025 | 0.3075 | 0.0314 | 111.939 |
9 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | 8 | 1'16.7484 | 0.3534 | 0.0459 | 111.872 |
10 | 27 | Marco Andretti | 8 | 1'16.7843 | 0.3893 | 0.0359 | 111.820 |
11 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 13 | 1'16.9072 | 0.5122 | 0.1229 | 111.641 |
12 | 26 | Takuma Sato | 16 | 1'16.9676 | 0.5726 | 0.0604 | 111.553 |
13 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | 7 | 1'17.1210 | 0.7260 | 0.1534 | 111.332 |
14 | 21 | J.R. Hildebrand | 16 | 1'17.3287 | 0.9337 | 0.2077 | 111.033 |
15 | 19 | Ed Jones | 11 | 1'17.3960 | 1.0010 | 0.0673 | 110.936 |
16 | 20 | Spencer Pigot | 13 | 1'17.4254 | 1.0304 | 0.0294 | 110.894 |
17 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | 13 | 1'17.4384 | 1.0434 | 0.0130 | 110.875 |
18 | 8 | Max Chilton | 12 | 1'17.4736 | 1.0786 | 0.0352 | 110.825 |
19 | 14 | Carlos Munoz | 13 | 1'17.5451 | 1.1501 | 0.0715 | 110.723 |
20 | 7 | Jack Harvey | 11 | 1'17.6168 | 1.2218 | 0.0717 | 110.620 |
21 | 4 | Conor Daly | 17 | 1'17.6566 | 1.2616 | 0.0398 | 110.564 |
22 | 13 | Zachary Claman DeMelo | 16 | 1'17.9506 | 1.5556 | 0.2940 | 110.147 |
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