Castroneves leads Penske domination at Sonoma
Helio Castroneves led a Team Penske 1-2-3-6 at Sonoma Raceway in this afternoon’s second practice session, but it was slightly inconclusive due to two red flags, the second of which ended the session early.
Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt
The Brazilian set a time of 1min16.6678sec to eclipse his championship contending Team Penske-Chevrolet teammates – Will Power by just 0.0394sec, Simon Pagenaud by 0.31sec. Their teammate Juan Pablo Montoya was sixth, half a second off Castroneves’ best.
Intruding on the Penske domination were Andretti Autosport-Honda duo Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi. However, the #98 Andretti-Herta car of Rossi stopped just past the start/finish line with 2mins to go bringing out the second red flag, after he felt a strange vibration from the engine. Given that Conor Daly’s Dale Coyne Racing-Honda had detonated just 10mins earlier, causing the first red, it was probably a sound choice by Rossi and Bryan Herta.
Carlos Munoz (7th) and Marco Andretti (11th) meant all four Andretti cars finished in the top half of the field. Between Munoz and Andretti, were Sebastien Bourdais’ KVSH Racing-Chevy in eighth, and Chip Ganassi Racing-Chevy duo Charlie Kimball and Max Chilton.
Scott Dixon, who has won the last two GoPro Grands Prix of Sonoma, was only 16th, after surviving a lurid slide through Turn 2, that saw him run off-track on the inside.
| P. | N° | Driver | Team (Engine) | Laps | Time/deficit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 |  Helio Castroneves |
 Penske (C) |
11 | 1:16.6678 |
| 2 | 12 |  Will Power |
 Penske (C) |
13 | 0.0394 |
| 3 | 22 |  Simon Pagenaud |
 Penske (C) |
16 | 0.3079 |
| 4 | 28 |  Ryan Hunter-Reay |
 Andretti (H) |
13 | 0.3891 |
| 5 | 98 | Alexander Rossi |
 Andretti-Herta (H) |
16 | 0.4139 |
| 6 | 2 |  Juan Pablo Montoya |
 Penske (C) |
14 | 0.5158 |
| 7 | 26 | Carlos Muñoz |
 Andretti (H) |
17 | 0.5227 |
| 8 | 11 | Sébastien Bourdais |
 KVSH (C) |
20 | 0.5290 |
| 9 | 83 | Charlie Kimball |
 Ganassi (C) |
19 | 0.6386 |
| 10 | 8 |  Max Chilton |
 Ganassi (C) |
18 | 0.6598 |
| 11 | 27 | Marco Andretti |
 Andretti (H) |
14 | 0.6608 |
| 12 | 21 | Josef Newgarden |
 Carpenter (C) |
16 | 0.6637 |
| 13 | 5 |  James Hinchcliffe |
 Schmidt (H) |
15 | 0.7472 |
| 14 | 10 | Tony Kanaan |
 Ganassi (C) |
18 | 0.7584 |
| 15 | 41 | Jack Hawksworth |
 Foyt (H) |
16 | 0.8232 |
| 16 | 9 |  Scott Dixon |
 Ganassi (C) |
15 | 1.0331 |
| 17 | 14 |  Takuma Sato |
 Foyt (H) |
21 | 1.0551 |
| 18 | 20 | Spencer Pigot |
 Carpenter (C) |
15 | 1.0570 |
| 19 | 19 | R.C. Enerson |
 Coyne (H) |
24 | 1.0721 |
| 20 | 15 | Graham Rahal |
 Rahal (H) |
15 | 1.2791 |
| 21 | 7 |  Mikhail Aleshin |
 Schmidt (H) |
20 | 1.2981 |
| 22 | 18 | Conor Daly |
 Coyne (H) |
12 | 2.1734 |
(C) = Chevrolet, (H) = Honda
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