Dixon leads opening IndyCar practice in Toronto

Dixon quick in practice 1
Dixon quick in practice 1

Last year's Honda GP of Toronto winner Scott Dixon, who took advantage of a restart mistake by race leader Josef Newgarden last year to win, topped the opening practice Friday morning for the IndyCars in his Ganassi Honda on the streets of Toronto, Canada.

Ironically Newgarden was 2nd quick in his Penske Chevy just 0.1415 sec behind.

Dixon's teammate Felix Rosenqvist was third quick while Alexander Rossi and Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top-5.

Friday's first practice saw three drivers spin in Turn 11 — the last corner ahead of the front straightaway. Those drivers — Team Penske's Will Power, Newgarden and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver Takuma Sato — all escaped with minimal, if any, contact and returned to practice following the mandatory and immediate 5-minute hold as a penalty for causing a stoppage during a practice.

Dixon said Turn 11 "has always been tricky."

All three drivers would be assessed five-minute penalties for their spins.

The NTT IndyCar Series will resume practice today at 3:15 p.m. ET, with live coverage available on NBC Sports Gold. Another practice will be held Saturday at 10:20 a.m. ET ahead of NTT P1 Award qualifying at 2 p.m. ET.

Practice 1 Results

Pos No Name Time Diff Gap Speed Engine Team
1 9 Scott Dixon 1:01.072 –.—- –.—- 105.278 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
2 2 Josef Newgarden 1:01.214 0.1415 0.1415 105.035 Chevy Team Penske
3 10 Felix Rosenqvist 1:01.239 0.1672 0.0257 104.991 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
4 27 Alexander Rossi 1:01.384 0.3120 0.1448 104.743 Honda Andretti Autosport
5 22 Simon Pagenaud 1:01.497 0.4246 0.1126 104.552 Chevy Team Penske
6 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 1:01.670 0.5979 0.1733 104.258 Honda Andretti Autosport
7 12 Will Power 1:01.684 0.6118 0.0139 104.234 Chevy Team Penske
8 18 Sebastien Bourdais 1:01.718 0.6457 0.0339 104.177 Honda Dale Coyne Racing w/Vasser-Sullivan
9 30 Takuma Sato 1:01.808 0.7357 0.0900 104.025 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
10 21 Spencer Pigot 1:01.829 0.7563 0.0206 103.991 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
11 98 Marco Andretti 1:01.875 0.8024 0.0461 103.913 Honda Andretti Herta w/ Marco & Curb
12 15 Graham Rahal 1:01.888 0.8160 0.0136 103.890 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
13 5 James Hinchcliffe 1:01.930 0.8579 0.0419 103.820 Honda Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
14 20 Ed Jones 1:02.051 0.9790 0.1211 103.617 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
15 88 Colton Herta 1:02.098 1.0256 0.0466 103.540 Honda Harding Steinbrenner Racing
16 59 Max Chilton 1:02.237 1.1646 0.1390 103.308 Chevy Carlin
17 26 Zach Veach 1:02.401 1.3284 0.1638 103.037 Honda Andretti Autosport
18 19 Santino Ferrucci 1:02.474 1.4012 0.0728 102.917 Honda Dale Coyne Racing
19 7 Marcus Ericsson 1:02.696 1.6232 0.2220 102.553 Honda Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
20 14 Tony Kanaan 1:02.916 1.8442 0.2210 102.193 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
21 4 Matheus Leist 1:03.075 2.0032 0.1590 101.935 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
22 31 Sage Karam 1:03.977 2.9042 0.9010 100.499 Chevy Carlin