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