Hinchcliffe tops opening IndyCar practice in Long Beach

James Hinchcliffe

Practice 1 on the streets of Long Beach saw James Hinchcliffe top the time sheet with a lap of 1 minute, 9.8110 seconds. Last April, the Andretti Autosport driver in the No. 27 entry was quickest in the opening session the 1.968-mile, 11-turn course at 1:08.9187. One notable difference is that the team switched to the twin-turbocharged Honda engine this season.

Eight different teams were represented in the top 10, and the top 17 cars were separated by less than a second.

Helio Castroneves, driving the No. 3 AAA Southern California Team Penske car, was 0.1795 of a second behind Hinchcliffe. Justin Wilson in the No. 19 Dale Coyne Racing car was third (1:10.0080) and Ryan Hunter-Reay was fourth (1:10.0340) in the No. 28 DHL car for Andretti Autosport.

Drivers also were practicing for the standing start — the first of the season and the first at Long Beach since 2008 — for the 80-lap race April 13.

A second 45-minute practice is scheduled for 5 p.m. (ET).

Results

Driver No. Time Speed Laps Difference Gap
James Hinchcliffe 27 01:09.8110 101.485 17 –.—- –.—-
Helio Castroneves 3 01:09.9905 101.225 14 0.1795 0.1795
Justin Wilson 19 01:10.0080 101.2 12 0.1970 0.0175
Ryan Hunter-Reay 28 01:10.0340 101.162 9 0.2230 0.0260
Josef Newgarden 67 01:10.0648 101.118 8 0.2538 0.0308
Will Power 12 01:10.1677 100.97 15 0.3567 0.1029
Jack Hawksworth 98 01:10.1970 100.927 21 0.3860 0.0293
Mike Conway 20 01:10.2077 100.912 18 0.3967 0.0107
Simon Pagenaud 77 01:10.2235 100.889 11 0.4125 0.0158
Tony Kanaan 10 01:10.2343 100.874 10 0.4233 0.0108
Marco Andretti 25 01:10.2514 100.849 15 0.4404 0.0171
Takuma Sato 14 01:10.2518 100.849 16 0.4408 0.0004
Sebastien Bourdais 11 01:10.3638 100.688 13 0.5528 0.1120
Juan Pablo Montoya 2 01:10.4651 100.543 16 0.6541 0.1013
Oriol Servia 16 01:10.5054 100.486 16 0.6944 0.0403
Scott Dixon 9 01:10.5225 100.462 10 0.7115 0.0171
Sebastian Saavedra 17 01:10.8040 100.062 15 0.9930 0.2815
Graham Rahal 15 01:10.8436 100.006 17 1.0326 0.0396
Carlos Munoz 34 01:10.9255 99.891 16 1.1145 0.0819
Ryan Briscoe 8 01:10.9501 99.856 7 1.1391 0.0246
Charlie Kimball 83 01:11.0411 99.728 16 1.2301 0.0910
Mikhail Aleshin 7 01:11.1709 99.546 15 1.3599 0.1298
Carlos Huertas 18 01:11.3577 99.286 19 1.5467 0.1868