Long Beach IndyCar: Simon Pagenaud quickest in final practice

The Frenchman went to the top late in the session with a best lap of 1m08.0960s, just edging out former Champ Car team-mate Will Power by 0.0076 seconds.

The margin between the Schmidt and Penske drivers was representative of how tight the times were right though the field, with 18 drivers dipping under Ryan Briscoe's 1m08.6089s pole time from last year.

Power's best time came after he had earlier triggered the first red flag of the morning when he lost the rear on his way into Turn 11, a mistake that ended with his car hitting the barriers and sustaining a broken rear wing.

The only other interruption of the morning was also Penske-based, this time coming at the hands of Helio Castroneves.

The Brazilian spun to a halt at Turn 5, but was able to get himself back to the pits under reds and resumed running shortly after the session restarted.

Mike Conway's good start to the weekend continued as he set the third-best lap of the morning.

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver was just ahead of reigning champion Ryan Hunter-Reay, who had led the times through the middle phase of the session.

Pos  Driver               Team/Car                   Time        Gap
 1.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt Dallara-Honda      1m08.0960s
 2.  Will Power           Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m08.1036s  + 0.0076s
 3.  Mike Conway          Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m08.1112s  + 0.0152s
 4.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m08.1790s  + 0.0830s
 5.  Graham Rahal         Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m08.1803s  + 0.0843s
 6.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m08.2051s  + 0.1091s
 7.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m08.2715s  + 0.1755s
 8.  AJ Allmendinger      Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m08.2781s  + 0.1821s
 9.  Simona de Silvestro  KV Dallara-Chevy           1m08.3420s  + 0.2460s
10.  Helio Castroneves    Penske Dallara-Chevy       1m08.3593s  + 0.2633s
11.  Tony Kanaan          KV Dallara-Chevy           1m08.3615s  + 0.2655s
12.  JR Hildebrand        Panther Dallara-Chevy      1m08.4587s  + 0.3627s
13.  Marco Andretti       Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m08.4967s  + 0.4007s
14.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt Dallara-Honda      1m08.5013s  + 0.4053s
15.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m08.5238s  + 0.4278s
16.  Oriol Servia         Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy  1m08.5285s  + 0.4325s
17.  Takuma Sato          Foyt Dallara-Honda         1m08.5539s  + 0.4579s
18.  James Jakes          Rahal Dallara-Honda        1m08.5922s  + 0.4962s
19.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m08.6139s  + 0.5179s
20.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher Dallara-Honda       1m08.6347s  + 0.5387s
21.  Alex Tagliani        Herta Dallara-Honda        1m08.6781s  + 0.5821s
22.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi Dallara-Honda      1m08.8232s  + 0.7272s
23.  EJ Viso              Andretti Dallara-Chevy     1m08.8762s  + 0.7802s
24.  Justin Wilson        Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m09.0592s  + 0.9632s
25.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon Dallara-Chevy       1m09.3640s  + 1.2680s
26.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter Dallara-Chevy    1m09.4512s  + 1.3552s
27.  Ana Beatriz          Coyne Dallara-Honda        1m09.6140s  + 1.5180s