Power dominates first practice at Detroit

The Team Penske-Chevrolet #12 lapped the 2.36-mile course in 1min15.0197sec on his 17^th of 21 laps, to go a 0.56sec clear of his nearest opponent, teammate Helio Castroneves.

Scott Dixon was third fastest for Chip Ganassi Racing-Chevrolet, while points leader Simon Pagenaud was fourth ahead of the top Honda representatives – James Hinchcliffe of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Graham Rahal.

Last year’s winners here, Sebastien Bourdais of KVSH Racing-Chevrolet and Carlos Munoz of Andretti Autosport-Honda, wound up seventh and 10^th respectively.

SPM’s second driver, Mikhail Aleshin, was benched for the final 10 minutes of the session, after bringing out two red flags – the first for a harmless spin, the second for a more vigorous effort at Turn 7 that clouted the tire barriers and ripped off the rear-left wheel pod which sprayed debris over the track.

Rookies had a hard time. Indy 500 winner Alexander Rossi looked spectacular as he slid around the course but could only muster 19^th, over two seconds off Power’s benchmark, while Spencer Pigot and Max Chilton were a further 0.7sec adrift. Pigot is drivng the second Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy for the remainder of the season’s road and street courses, handing off to team owner Ed Carpenter for the ovals.

IndyCar 2016 - Detroit - Free Practice 1

P.		Driver	Team	Time
1	12	Will Power	Penske (C)	1:15.0197
2	3	Helio Castroneves	Penske (C)	+0.5600
3	9	Scott Dixon	Ganassi (C)	+0.7346
4	22	Simon Pagenaud	Penske (C)	+0.8831
5	5	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt (H)	+0.9211
6	15	Graham Rahal	Rahal (H)	+1.0097
7	11	Sébastien Bourdais	KVSH (C)	+1.0538
8	21	Josef Newgarden	Carpenter (C)	+1.1146
9	27	Marco Andretti	Andretti (H)	+1.3049
10	26	Carlos Muñoz	Andretti (H)	+1.3051
11	14	Takuma Sato	Foyt (H)	+1.3194
12	7	Mikhail Aleshin	Schmidt (H)	+1.3528
13	2	Juan Pablo Montoya	Penske (C)	+1.4390
14	83	Charlie Kimball	Ganassi (C)	+1.6893
15	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti (H)	+1.6953
16	18	Conor Daly	Coyne (H)	+1.8525
17	10	Tony Kanaan	Ganassi (C)	+1.9344
18	41	Jack Hawksworth	Foyt (H)	+1.9671
19	98	Alexander Rossi	Andretti-Herta (H)	+2.1228
20	19	Gabby Chaves	Coyne (H)	+2.3956
21	20	Spencer Pigot	Carpenter (C)	+2.8496
22	8	Max Chilton	Ganassi (C)	+2.9175

(C) = Chevrolet, (H) = Honda