IndyCar GP of Alabama: Pagenaud leads Penske Chevy 1-2-3-4 in first practice
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| Bourdais' team checks out his car after he plastered the advertising sign |
A red flag late in the session when Sebastien Bourdais took out one of the GP of Alabama sponsor signs, could not stop the Penske Chevy juggernaut of Simon Pagenaud, Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Helio Castroneves from finishing 1-2-3-4 atop the time sheets in the first practice session Friday morning.
The fastest Honda was Andretti Autosport driver Alexander Rossi in 5th with his teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay rounding out the top-6.
Results
| Pos | No | Name | FTime | Diff | Gap | FL | Laps | FSpeed | Engine |
| 1 | 1 | Simon Pagenaud | 1:08.110 | 0.000 | 0.000 | 4 | 21 | 121.567 | Chevy |
| 2 | 2 | Josef Newgarden | 1:08.182 | 0.0718 | 0.0718 | 5 | 14 | 121.439 | Chevy |
| 3 | 12 | Will Power | 1:08.219 | 0.1082 | 0.0364 | 17 | 17 | 121.375 | Chevy |
| 4 | 3 | Helio Castroneves | 1:08.411 | 0.3008 | 0.1926 | 4 | 15 | 121.033 | Chevy |
| 5 | 98 | Alexander Rossi | 1:08.456 | 0.3456 | 0.0448 | 3 | 15 | 120.954 | Honda |
| 6 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1:08.559 | 0.4491 | 0.1035 | 3 | 10 | 120.771 | Honda |
| 7 | 15 | Graham Rahal | 1:08.614 | 0.5038 | 0.0547 | 17 | 18 | 120.675 | Honda |
| 8 | 5 | James Hinchcliffe | 1:08.635 | 0.5243 | 0.0205 | 7 | 11 | 120.639 | Honda |
| 9 | 18 | Sebastien Bourdais | 1:08.674 | 0.5633 | 0.0390 | 6 | 12 | 120.570 | Honda |
| 10 | 9 | Scott Dixon | 1:08.675 | 0.5649 | 0.0016 | 4 | 14 | 120.567 | Honda |
| 11 | 7 | Mikhail Aleshin | 1:08.708 | 0.5973 | 0.0324 | 15 | 15 | 120.511 | Honda |
| 12 | 27 | Marco Andretti | 1:08.726 | 0.6154 | 0.0181 | 3 | 10 | 120.479 | Honda |
| 13 | 14 | Carlos Munoz | 1:08.749 | 0.6384 | 0.0230 | 10 | 16 | 120.438 | Chevy |
| 14 | 26 | Takuma Sato | 1:08.763 | 0.6523 | 0.0139 | 3 | 14 | 120.414 | Honda |
| 15 | 19 | Ed Jones | 1:08.889 | 0.7789 | 0.1266 | 11 | 12 | 120.193 | Honda |
| 16 | 20 | Spencer Pigot | 1:09.009 | 0.8988 | 0.1199 | 18 | 18 | 119.984 | Chevy |
| 17 | 4 | Conor Daly | 1:09.024 | 0.9134 | 0.0146 | 4 | 15 | 119.959 | Chevy |
| 18 | 10 | Tony Kanaan | 1:09.033 | 0.9225 | 0.0091 | 14 | 15 | 119.943 | Honda |
| 19 | 83 | Charlie Kimball | 1:09.078 | 0.9675 | 0.0450 | 5 | 16 | 119.865 | Honda |
| 20 | 8 | Max Chilton | 1:09.170 | 1.0595 | 0.0920 | 6 | 15 | 119.705 | Honda |
| 21 | 21 | Zach Veach | 1:10.635 | 2.5242 | 1.4647 | 12 | 20 | 117.223 | Chevy |