Power over Rossi in opening Indy GP practice
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 |
“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 |