Simon Pagenaud leads Edmonton IndyCar practice
| By Mark Glendenning |
Friday, July 20th 2012, 18:08 GMT |
 Simon Pagenaud opened this weekend's IndyCar round at Edmonton by setting the fastest time in the first practice session for the Schmidt Hamilton team.
The Frenchman's best lap of 1m16.5391s was well under last year's pole time of 1m18.5165s set by Takuma Sato, and put him almost 0.4 seconds clear of Foyt's Mike Conway in second place. Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne) was third-fastest.
For most of the session, the man to beat was rookie Josef Newgarden, who set a benchmark of 1m17.1461s during the first half hour, when running was restricted to drivers outside the top 10 in the points. But even after the track was opened to the entire field, Newgarden's time held until the final five minutes, and he still finished the session in fifth.
Current points leader Ryan Hunter-Reay ended the morning 22nd fastest, one place behind main championship rival Will Power. The American was forced to sit out the final two minutes of the session for unsportsmanlike conduct following an incident with Wilson's team-mate James Jakes. Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap
1. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Dallara-Honda 1m16.5391s
2. Mike Conway Foyt Dallara-Honda 1m16.9309s + 0.3918s
3. Justin Wilson Coyne Dallara-Honda 1m16.9718s + 0.4327s
4. Graham Rahal Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m17.0914s + 0.5523s
5. Josef Newgarden Fisher Dallara-Honda 1m17.1461s + 0.6070s
6. Dario Franchitti Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m17.1985s + 0.6594s
7. Scott Dixon Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m17.2414s + 0.7023s
8. James Jakes Coyne Dallara-Honda 1m17.3587s + 0.8196s
9. Rubens Barrichello KV Dallara-Chevy 1m17.3888s + 0.8497s
10. JR Hildebrand Panther Dallara-Chevy 1m17.3949s + 0.8558s
11. Alex Tagliani Herta Dallara-Honda 1m17.4025s + 0.8634s
12. Ryan Briscoe Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m17.4110s + 0.8719s
13. Charlie Kimball Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m17.5277s + 0.9886s
14. Takuma Sato Rahal Dallara-Honda 1m17.6276s + 1.0885s
15. Marco Andretti Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m17.6346s + 1.0955s
16. Helio Castroneves Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m17.6804s + 1.1413s
17. EJ Viso KV Dallara-Chevy 1m17.7762s + 1.2371s
18. James Hinchcliffe Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m17.8111s + 1.2720s
19. Tony Kanaan KV Dallara-Chevy 1m17.8311s + 1.2920s
20. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon Dallara-Chevy 1m17.8715s + 1.3324s
21. Will Power Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m17.9286s + 1.3895s
22. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m18.1163s + 1.5772s
23. Simona de Silvestro HVM Dallara-Lotus 1m18.1858s + 1.6467s
24. Oriol Servia Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy 1m18.4726s + 1.9335s
25. Ed Carpenter Carpenter Dallara-Chevy 1m18.8988s + 2.3597s
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