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Detroit IndyCar: Simon Pagenaud ends Friday practice on top

Simon Pagenaud topped the times in the second of Friday's practice sessions for this weekend's IndyCar races on Belle Isle in Detroit

The Schmidt driver's 1m17.6502s moved him to the top just a third of the way into the 45-minute session, but his time remained unbeaten.

Early session leaders Mike Conway and Helio Castroneves both came close, falling 0.064s and 0.066s short respectively.

Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the top five, which was something of a surprise considering that neither had what they would consider to be an ideal session.

Power's moment came when he lost the tail of his Penske Dallara-Chevrolet and slapped the wall with his left-rear, forcing a visit to the pits for repairs 20 minutes before the chequered flag.

Meanwhile Hunter-Reay, who led the morning session, suffered what appeared to be a minor brake fire early on, and then a rather more series problem when his car cut out completely on the circuit and refused to be restarted.

That brought out the third of the day's three red flags, but fortunately for the Andretti driver the drama struck when there was less than two minutes remaining.

The other red flags were caused by Sebastian Saavedra (harmless trip up into escape road) and Justin Wilson (spin into wall, visit to pits for new nose), although the challenges presented by the track's bumpy surface meant that there could easily have been others.

Pagenaud was able to get away with a huge slide, and Charlie Kimball was similarly fortunate to catch a wayward moment without hitting the concrete barriers.

Follow both the Detroit IndyCar races and qualifying sessions as they happen with AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live this weekend. Races start 8.30pm UK time each night

Pos  Driver              Team/Engine      Time        Gap
 1.  Simon Pagenaud      Schmidt/Honda    1m17.6502s
 2.  Mike Conway         Carpenter/Chevy  1m17.7149s  +0.0647s
 3.  Helio Castroneves   Penske/Chevy     1m17.7171s  +0.0669s
 4.  Will Power          Penske/Chevy     1m17.8966s  +0.2464s
 5.  Ryan Hunter-Reay    Andretti/Honda   1m18.1674s  +0.5172s
 6.  Scott Dixon         Gansssi/Chevy    1m18.2490s  +0.5988s
 7.  Takuma Sato         Foyt/Honda       1m18.3006s  +0.6504s
 8.  James Hinchcliffe   Andretti/Honda   1m18.3223s  +0.6721s
 9.  Ryan Briscoe        Ganassi/Chevy    1m18.4500s  +0.7998s
10.  Graham Rahal        Rahal/Honda      1m18.6137s  +0.9635s
11.  Tony Kanaan         Ganassi/Chevy    1m18.6294s  +0.9792s
12.  Carlos Munoz        Andretti/Honda   1m18.6299s  +0.9797s
13.  Sebastian Saavedra  KV/Chevy         1m18.6468s  +0.9966s
14.  Josef Newgarden     Fisher/Honda     1m18.7344s  +1.0842s
15.  Marco Andretti      Andretti/Honda   1m19.0057s  +1.3555s
16.  Justin Wilson       Coyne/Honda      1m19.0925s  +1.4423s
17.  Jack Hawksworth     Herta/Honda      1m19.1898s  +1.5396s
18.  Carlos Huertas      Coyne/Honda      1m19.3857s  +1.7355s
19.  Juan Pablo Montoya  Penske/Chevy     1m19.5345s  +1.8843s
20.  Charlie Kimball     Ganassi/Chevy    1m19.5957s  +1.9455s
21.  Sebastien Bourdais  KV/Chevy         1m19.6048s  +1.9546s
22.  Mikhail Aleshin     Schmidt/Honda    1m19.6560s  +2.0058s

All drivers use Dallara chassis

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