Power over Rossi in opening Indy GP practice

Will Power
Will Power

Last year's Indy GP winner Will Power (Chevy) turned a lap of 1m10.087s to beat Alexander Rossi (Honda) by just 0.033s in opening practice for the Indy GP to be run Saturday on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.

Jordan King (Honda) was third quick for Ed Carpenter Racing.

“We had a good car here at the test we had a couple months ago – we were quickest," Rossi said, referring to a chilly manufacturer test day on March 23. “We came back with quite a bit of confidence.

“It’s not too different from any other track. The big thing you’re trying to maximize is braking zones because there’s such long straights here with two very heavy braking zones. You can win or lose a lot of time there."

Rookie Jordan King, who has shown impressive flashes of speed competing on the road and street circuits in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet, was third quick in the opening session at 1:10.1551 (125.157 mph). While happy with the result, the 24-year-old Brit knows there’s still work to do to get the car to agree with the much warmer conditions this weekend compared to the March test.

Rossi locks a wheel and goes 2nd quick
Rossi locks a wheel and goes 2nd quick

“There’s a few tricks that have been thrown up in the last two months with just the weather changes," King said, “but I’m sure we’ll get on top of it. So far it’s looking all right, so we’ll see how it goes."

King qualified fourth and led five laps in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix before finishing 21st. His best result in three races this season was 14th in last month’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by America’s First.

“I’ve tried not to put any more pressure on myself," King said of trying to improve the finish this weekend. “Everything’s been really good, the speed’s been really good. We probably should have had two podiums and top-five finishes. We know it’s there, it’s just kind or ironing out the few little creases and we’ll get it."

Sebastien Bourdais and Takuma Sato rounded out the top-5 in their Hondas.

A second 45-minute practice starts at 12:30 p.m. ET today, ahead of Verizon P1 Award qualifying to determine the pole winner at 4:30 p.m.

Results

Pos No Name FTime Diff Gap Laps FSpeed Engine Team
1 12 Will Power 1:10.087 –.—- –.—- 18 125.279 Chevy Team Penske
2 27 Alexander Rossi 1:10.120 0.0332 0.0332 18 125.220 Honda Andretti Autosport
3 20 Jordan King 1:10.155 0.0685 0.0353 15 125.157 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
4 18 Sebastien Bourdais 1:10.179 0.0925 0.0240 13 125.114 Honda Dale Coyne Racing
5 30 Takuma Sato 1:10.182 0.0958 0.0033 18 125.108 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan
6 1 Josef Newgarden 1:10.280 0.1936 0.0978 17 124.934 Chevy Team Penske
7 9 Scott Dixon 1:10.286 0.1992 0.0056 18 124.924 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
8 21 Spencer Pigot 1:10.318 0.2314 0.0322 17 124.867 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
9 10 Ed Jones 1:10.442 0.3556 0.1242 21 124.647 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
10 3 Helio Castroneves 1:10.459 0.3723 0.0167 18 124.617 Chevy Team Penske
11 26 Zach Veach 1:10.487 0.4003 0.0280 18 124.568 Honda Andretti Autosport
12 15 Graham Rahal 1:10.493 0.4059 0.0056 18 124.558 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan
13 98 Marco Andretti 1:10.523 0.4367 0.0308 16 124.504 Honda Andretti Herta Autosport
14 19 Zachary De Melo 1:10.578 0.4915 0.0548 16 124.407 Honda Dale Coyne Racing
15 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 1:10.590 0.5037 0.0122 14 124.385 Honda Andretti Autosport
16 6 Robert Wickens 1:10.608 0.5210 0.0173 18 124.355 Honda Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
17 14 Tony Kanaan 1:10.611 0.5243 0.0033 15 124.349 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
18 22 Simon Pagenaud 1:10.642 0.5554 0.0311 19 124.294 Chevy Team Penske
19 4 Matheus Leist 1:10.921 0.8340 0.2786 17 123.806 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
20 5 James Hinchcliffe 1:10.935 0.8485 0.0145 16 123.781 Honda Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
21 23 Charlie Kimball 1:11.020 0.9338 0.0853 19 123.632 Chevy Carlin
22 88 Gabby Chaves 1:11.100 1.0133 0.0795 15 123.494 Chevy Harding Racing
23 59 Max Chilton 1:11.228 1.1413 0.1280 18 123.272 Chevy Carlin
24 32 Kyle Kaiser 1:11.376 1.2890 0.1477 17 123.017 Chevy Juncos Racing