Practice report
IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis
Dixon grabs P1 in second practice for GP Indy
Under gloomy skies, the four-time and reigning IndyCar champion nailed the fastest time of the day to push Chip Ganassi Racing ahead of its prime rivals Team Penske, as five drivers ducked under the 70-second barrier.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: May 18, 2016, 2:50 PM
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Dixon lapped the 2.439-mile course in 1min09.8281sec to set an average speed of 125.743mph with his final lap of the day. That edged him 0.16sec ahead of championship leader Simon Pagenaud of Team Penske-Chevrolet.
Graham Rahal was again top Honda runner, a mere 0.0002 behind his Barber Motorsports Park adversary, with Sebastien Bourdais (KVSH Racing) and Will Power (Penske) a similar distance apart in fourth and fifth. Power’s P1 time from the first practice remains his fastest of the day, and would have put him P2 in combined times.
Following James Hinchcliffe’s problem this morning, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports could be satisfied with sixth and eighth for Mikhail Aleshin and Hinchcliffe, although the latter drove off-course in the closing minute of the session.
2012 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay headed up the Andretti Autosport-Honda quartet in 10th, while Spencer Pigot was again impressive in the second RLLR car, clocking a time less than 0.3sec from team leader Rahal.
Another noticeable improvement came from JR Hildebrand who was just a quarter-second off Ed Carpenter Racing teammate Josef Newgarden… although this made a difference of 10 places on the timesheets!
Alex Tagliani had an adventurous session. He caused the second of two red flags with a spin and stall (Alex Rossi was the first), then he became the quickest AJ Foyt Racing driver, then he received a penalty for ignoring the checkered flag. The Canadian will have to miss the first five minutes of practice tomorrow as his punishment.
Matthew Brabham, on his IndyCar debut, was 24th and last of the drivers who set a representative time, despite his Pirtek Team Murray-KVSH entry being just 1.15sec off the ultimate pace and within one second of KVSH teammate Bourdais.
In the closing five minutes, Carlos Munoz's Andretti Autosport-Honda car made one slow lap, and then all-but expired on the final turn.
Second practice for Grand Prix of Indianapolis
PiloteÉquipeÉcart 1 9 
Scott Dixon 
Ganassi (C) 1:09.8281 2 22 
Simon Pagenaud 
Penske (C) +0.1613 3 15 
Graham Rahal 
Rahal (H) +0.1615 4 11 Sébastien Bourdais 
KVSH (C) +0.1663 5 12 
Will Power 
Penske (C) +0.1665 6 7 
Mikhail Aleshin 
Schmidt (H) +0.2297 7 21 Josef Newgarden 
Carpenter (C) +0.2460 8 5 
James Hinchcliffe 
Schmidt (H) +0.2534 9 2 
Juan Pablo Montoya 
Penske (C) +0.3415 10 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 
Andretti (H) +0.3652 11 3 
Helio Castroneves 
Penske (C) +0.4199 12 16 Spencer Pigot 
Rahal (H) +0.4260 13 83 Charlie Kimball 
Ganassi (C) +0.4599 14 18 Conor Daly 
Coyne (H) +0.4656 15 27 Marco Andretti 
Andretti (H) +0.4686 16 19 Gabby Chaves 
Coyne (H) +0.4781 17 6 J.R. Hildebrand 
Carpenter (C) +0.5126 18 98 Alexander Rossi 
Andretti-Herta (H) +0.6334 19 35 Alex Tagliani 
Foyt (H) +0.6825 20 8 
Max Chilton 
Ganassi (C) +0.7694 21 14 
Takuma Sato 
Foyt (H) +0.8031 22 10 Tony Kanaan 
Ganassi (C) +0.8106 23 41 Jack Hawksworth 
Foyt (H) +0.8967 24 61 Matthew Brabham 
KV/Murray (C) +1.1488 25 26 Carlos Muñoz 
Andretti (H) +18.1115
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