IndyCar Toronto: Sebastien Bourdais heads Penske drivers in practice
Sebastien Bourdais continued his strong form at a revamped Toronto street circuit in the third IndyCar practice, holding off the Team Penske quartet
The practice one pacesetter traded the top times with Penske's Will Power, with the weekend's fastest laps continuing to tumble throughout the 45 minute session courtesy of the pair.
Power was the first into the 1m00s, before Bourdais finished quickest with a 1m00.6035 second lap - 0.3122s ahead of Australian.
Championship leader Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves continued Penske's promising form finishing third and fourth in the final session ahead of qualifying.
A handful of changes overnight helped the session remain largely clean after Friday's fraught second practice in which Juan Pablo Montoya and Charlie Kimball were among those to clout the walls.
Smooth patches in Turn 1 and Turn 9 were sandblasted to provide a grippier surface, while the wall at Turn 8 was moved back to give around 6ft more room in the corner.
The changes meant that Mikhail Aleshin was the only one to cause a brief red flag period in Saturday's session, after catching the inside wall at Turn 7 to suffer some front right damage.
While the Penske crew was able to repair Montoya's car overnight following his heavy crash, the Colombian spent much of the session in the pits with last minute adjustments, meaning he couldn't get any more than 13 laps and 19th position under his belt.
Top Honda honours went to Jack Hawksworth who managed a time good enough for sixth 0.4418s down on Bourdais.
FINAL PRACTICE TIMES
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sebastien Bourdais | KVSH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m00.6035s | 24 |
2 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.2675s | 24 |
3 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.3122s | 19 |
4 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.3575s | 22 |
5 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.3999s | 20 |
6 | Jack Hawksworth | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 0.4418s | 20 |
7 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 0.5765s | 25 |
8 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.5922s | 22 |
9 | Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 0.6448s | 15 |
10 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.6677s | 25 |
11 | Josef Newgarden | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.7014s | 21 |
12 | Luca Filippi | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 0.7126s | 20 |
13 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 0.7172s | 22 |
14 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Herta | Dallara/Honda | 0.8266s | 22 |
15 | Takuma Sato | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 0.8748s | 21 |
16 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 0.8871s | 22 |
17 | Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.9773s | 21 |
18 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1.0040s | 18 |
19 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1.0573s | 13 |
20 | Conor Daly | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1.1257s | 19 |
21 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1.2262s | 23 |
22 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1.5403s | 24 |
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