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Motorsport
Motorsport
Sport
David Malsher-Lopez

Long Beach IndyCar: Pagenaud, Rossi lead opening practice

Pagenaud, the 2016 Long Beach winner, clocked a 67.1991sec in the session, eclipsing two-time Long Beach winner Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport-Honda by 0.4021sec. Pagenaud's best time was two seconds quicker than Colton Herta's first practice time from last year's Long Beach in September. Today's temperatures hovered just under the 100degF mark.

Apart from the usual problems of drivers outbraking themselves and having harmless trips to runoff 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-Chevrolet driver re-emerged and he swiftly got on his teammate 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-Chevrolet teammate 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-Chevy and Kyle Kirkwood of AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy, who both squeezed into the Top 10, taking advantage of their extra sets of Firestone tires.

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-Honda teammates, Graham Rahal, but ahead of quick rookie Christian Lundgaard.

Second practice begins at 8.45am local (Pacific) time on Saturday.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval Mph
1 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 18 1'07.199     105.430
2 United States Alexander Rossi United States Andretti Autosport 22 1'07.601 0.402 0.402 104.803
3 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 19 1'07.672 0.472 0.070 104.693
4 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 18 1'07.728 0.529 0.056 104.606
5 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 17 1'07.842 0.643 0.114 104.430
6 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 21 1'07.878 0.679 0.035 104.375
7 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 16 1'07.911 0.712 0.033 104.324
8 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 21 1'08.000 0.800 0.088 104.188
9 United Kingdom Callum Ilott Juncos Hollinger Racing 23 1'08.020 0.821 0.020 104.157
10 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 20 1'08.022 0.823 0.002 104.154
11 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 15 1'08.047 0.848 0.025 104.115
12 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 16 1'08.157 0.958 0.110 103.947
13 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 14 1'08.173 0.974 0.015 103.923
14 Mexico Patricio O'Ward United States Arrow McLaren SP 9 1'08.414 1.215 0.241 103.557
15 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist United States Arrow McLaren SP 17 1'08.461 1.262 0.046 103.486
16 United States David Malukas Dale Coyne Racing with HMD 20 1'08.483 1.284 0.022 103.452
17 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 18 1'08.579 1.380 0.096 103.307
18 Canada Dalton Kellett United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 19 1'08.700 1.501 0.120 103.126
19 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 18 1'08.700 1.501 0.000 103.125
20 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 13 1'08.770 1.571 0.069 103.021
21 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 20 1'08.773 1.574 0.003 103.016
22 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 21 1'08.840 1.641 0.067 102.916
23 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 20 1'09.072 1.873 0.232 102.570
24 Japan Takuma Sato United States Dale Coyne Racing 17 1'09.246 2.046 0.173 102.313
25 United States Jimmie Johnson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 7 1'09.620 2.421 0.374 101.763
26 Colombia Tatiana Calderon United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 18 1'09.982 2.783 0.362 101.237
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