Phoenix IndyCar: Defending winner Pagenaud tops first practice
2016 IndyCar champion Simon Pagenaud picked up where he left off last April, driving his Team Penske-Chevrolet to the top of the time sheets with his very last lap in FP1 at Phoenix’s ISM Raceway.
Photo by: Scott R LePage / Motorsport Images
Although James Hinchcliffe held top spot for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda for much of the session, the teams took a fairly measured approach to tire usage, and it wasn’t until the closing 12 minutes that times started to fall, and speeds started to climb.
Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay was the first driver to eclipse the 182mph barrier with a lap of 20.2143sec around the 1.022-mile oval, but with six minutes to go, Pagenaud knocked him back with a 182.313 lap in the #22 Penske-Chevrolet.
The 2016 champion was then demoted by Tony Kanaan’s AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet, which shone so brightly at the preseason test here and in this session lapped at 182.313mph. However, with his very last flyer, Pagenaud clawed back top spot with a 182.375mph run.
Dale Coyne Racing-Honda’s St. Petersburg winner Sebastien Bourdais had a good stab at top spot but had to settle for P3, enough to best Hunter-Reay’s earlier effort, and that of RHR’s Andretti Autosport teammate, Alexander Rossi .
Hinchcliffe’s 181.824mph was good enough for sixth, ahead of Ed Jones in the faster of the two Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas, Penske’s reigning champion Josef Newgarden, and rookies Matheus Leist (Foyt) and Robert Wickens (SPM).
Surprisingly, neither Scott Dixon (Ganassi) nor Will Power (Penske) reached 180mph. Indeed, they were only a tenth of a second faster than two more impressive rookies – Kyle Kaiser, who for this race replaces St. Pete debutant Rene Binder in the Juncos Racing-Chevy, and Pietro Fittipaldi in the second Coyne car.
The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda duo, Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal, who between them topped all four preseason test sessions here, were only 18th and 17th respectively.
However, conditions will change before the next session – qualifying – to be held at 5pm local (Pacific) time.
IndyCar, Phoenix first practice
Cla | # | Driver | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 22 | Simon Pagenaud | 34 | 20.1738 | 182.375 | ||
2 | 14 | Tony Kanaan | 29 | 20.1807 | 0.0069 | 0.0069 | 182.313 |
3 | 18 | Sébastien Bourdais | 25 | 20.2001 | 0.0263 | 0.0194 | 182.138 |
4 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 24 | 20.2143 | 0.0405 | 0.0142 | 182.010 |
5 | 27 | Alexander Rossi | 32 | 20.2286 | 0.0548 | 0.0143 | 181.881 |
6 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | 42 | 20.2349 | 0.0611 | 0.0063 | 181.824 |
7 | 10 | Ed Jones | 32 | 20.3186 | 0.1448 | 0.0837 | 181.075 |
8 | 1 | Josef Newgarden | 28 | 20.3348 | 0.1610 | 0.0162 | 180.931 |
9 | 4 | Matheus Leist | 42 | 20.3716 | 0.1978 | 0.0368 | 180.604 |
10 | 6 | Robert Wickens | 40 | 20.4164 | 0.2426 | 0.0448 | 180.208 |
11 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 36 | 20.4950 | 0.3212 | 0.0786 | 179.517 |
12 | 12 | Will Power | 35 | 20.5381 | 0.3643 | 0.0431 | 179.140 |
13 | 32 | Kyle Kaiser | 54 | 20.6070 | 0.4332 | 0.0689 | 178.541 |
14 | 19 | Zachary Claman DeMelo | 45 | 20.6571 | 0.4833 | 0.0501 | 178.108 |
15 | 98 | Marco Andretti | 23 | 20.6900 | 0.5162 | 0.0329 | 177.825 |
16 | 21 | Spencer Pigot | 32 | 20.7152 | 0.5414 | 0.0252 | 177.609 |
17 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 30 | 20.7561 | 0.5823 | 0.0409 | 177.259 |
18 | 30 | Takuma Sato | 32 | 20.7658 | 0.5920 | 0.0097 | 177.176 |
19 | 88 | Gabby Chaves | 25 | 20.8596 | 0.6858 | 0.0938 | 176.379 |
20 | 20 | Ed Carpenter | 38 | 20.9273 | 0.7535 | 0.0677 | 175.809 |
21 | 26 | Zach Veach | 36 | 21.1017 | 0.9279 | 0.1744 | 174.356 |
22 | 23 | Charlie Kimball | 28 | 21.1338 | 0.9600 | 0.0321 | 174.091 |
23 | 59 | Max Chilton | 29 | 21.4195 | 1.2457 | 0.2857 | 171.769 |
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