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Autosport
Autosport
Sport
David Malsher-Lopez

IndyCar Long Beach: Pagenaud leads opening practice

Pagenaud, the 2016 Long Beach winner, clocked a 1m07.1991s in the session, eclipsing two-time Long Beach winner Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport by 0.4021s. Pagenaud's best time was two seconds quicker than Colton Herta's first practice time from last year's Long Beach in September.

Apart from the usual problems of drivers outbraking themselves and having harmless trips to run-off zones – Ganassi’s Scott Dixon and the Andretti cars of Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta were three high-profile candidates – the main incidents were caused by Jimmie Johnson who nosed into a tire wall after grabbing too much curb on corner entry, and Dalton Kellett who spun and stalled. Both incidents required a red flag.

Pato O’Ward smacked his left-rear against the wall and gave himself a puncture and a broken toe-link but the Arrow McLaren SP driver re-emerged and he swiftly got on his team-mate Felix Rosenqvist’s pace, although the pair were only 14th and 15th.

Behind Pagenaud and Rossi was series sophomore and St. Petersburg winner Scott McLaughlin who emerged as fastest of the Chevrolet drivers, just ahead of Team Penske team-mate Josef Newgarden.

Quickest of the Ganassi drivers was Marcus Ericsson, who edged ahead of Colton Herta, defending series champion Alex Palou and two-time Long Beach victor Will Power in the third of the Penske entries.

Two stars of the show were rookies Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing and Kyle Kirkwood of AJ Foyt Racing, who both squeezed into the top 10, taking advantage of their extra sets of Firestone tyres.

They led two series veterans, Dixon and Helio Castroneves, while Jack Harvey's return after missing the Texas race due to a shunt saw him finish the day in 17th, behind one of his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team-mates Graham Rahal, but ahead of quick rookie Christian Lundgaard.

IndyCar Long Beach - FP1 results

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval
1 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 18 1'07.199    
2 United States Alexander Rossi United States Andretti Autosport 22 1'07.601 0.402 0.402
3 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 19 1'07.672 0.472 0.070
4 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 18 1'07.728 0.529 0.056
5 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 17 1'07.842 0.643 0.114
6 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 21 1'07.878 0.679 0.035
7 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 16 1'07.911 0.712 0.033
8 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 21 1'08.000 0.800 0.088
9 United Kingdom Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing 23 1'08.020 0.821 0.020
10 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 20 1'08.022 0.823 0.002
11 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 15 1'08.047 0.848 0.025
12 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 16 1'08.157 0.958 0.110
13 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 14 1'08.173 0.974 0.015
14 Mexico Patricio O'Ward United States Arrow McLaren SP 9 1'08.414 1.215 0.241
15 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist United States Arrow McLaren SP 17 1'08.461 1.262 0.046
16 United States David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing with HMD 20 1'08.483 1.284 0.022
17 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 18 1'08.579 1.380 0.096
18 Canada Dalton Kellett United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 19 1'08.700 1.501 0.120
19 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 18 1'08.700 1.501 0.000
20 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 13 1'08.770 1.571 0.069
21 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 20 1'08.773 1.574 0.003
22 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 21 1'08.840 1.641 0.067
23 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 20 1'09.072 1.873 0.232
24 Japan Takuma Sato United States Dale Coyne Racing 17 1'09.246 2.046 0.173
25 United States Jimmie Johnson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 7 1'09.620 2.421 0.374
26 Colombia Tatiana Calderon United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 18 1'09.982 2.783 0.362
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