Baltimore IndyCar: Simon Pagenaud leads crash-filled practice

Schmidt driver Pagenaud moved to the top on his final lap with a time of 1m18.4391s to displace Scott Dixon by 0.1s.

Will Power was third-fastest; his time just 0.03s down on Dixon's.

The pair had earlier been responsible for one of the three stoppages during the session when Dixon backed off to try to create some space for himself, only for the closely-following Power to tag the rear of his Ganassi car.

Dixon spun into the wall, breaking his front wing, before stopping in the middle of the track, while Power was able to return to the Penske pits to have his own broken wing attended to.

Simona de Silvestro also triggered a red with her trip into the tyre barrier at Turn 8, while championship leader Helio Castroneves caused the first when he had to be rescued from an escape road on his first lap.

There was also plenty of action at the chicane, with several drivers being launched skyward after taking too much of the kerb at the exit.

James Hinchcliffe and Marco Andretti both suffered minor damage from glancing the outside wall upon landing, and a handful of others were lucky to escape the same fate.

Pos  Driver               Team/Engine      Time        Gap
 1.  Simon Pagenaud       Schmidt/Honda    1m18.4391s
 2.  Scott Dixon          Ganassi/Honda    1m18.5486s  +0.1095s
 3.  Will Power           Penske/Chevy     1m18.5826s  +0.1435s
 4.  Sebastien Bourdais   Dragon/Chevy     1m18.6597s  +0.2206s
 5.  James Jakes          Rahal/Honda      1m18.7980s  +0.3589s
 6.  Graham Rahal         Rahal/Honda      1m18.9363s  +0.4972s
 7.  Oriol Servia         Panther/Chevy    1m18.9590s  +0.5199s
 8.  EJ Viso              Andretti/Chevy   1m18.9834s  +0.5443s
 9.  Luca Filippi         Herta/Honda      1m19.0194s  +0.5803s
10.  Justin Wilson        Coyne/Honda      1m19.0563s  +0.6172s
11.  Helio Castroneves    Penske/Chevy     1m19.0648s  +0.6257s
12.  Josef Newgarden      Fisher/Honda     1m19.0894s  +0.6503s
13.  Dario Franchitti     Ganassi/Honda    1m19.1284s  +0.6893s
14.  Tristan Vautier      Schmidt/Honda    1m19.1649s  +0.7258s
15.  Charlie Kimball      Ganassi/Honda    1m19.2145s  +0.7754s
16.  Ryan Hunter-Reay     Andretti/Chevy   1m19.2340s  +0.7949s
17.  Sebastian Saavedra   Dragon/Chevy     1m19.4357s  +0.9966s
18.  James Hinchcliffe    Andretti/Chevy   1m19.4538s  +1.0147s
19.  Tony Kanaan          KV/Chevy         1m19.4868s  +1.0477s
20.  Marco Andretti       Andretti/Chevy   1m20.0122s  +1.5731s
21.  Takuma Sato          Foyt/Honda       1m20.0539s  +1.6148s
22.  Simona de Silvestro  KV/Chevy         1m20.1658s  +1.7267s
23.  Ed Carpenter         Carpenter/Chevy  1m21.1120s  +2.6729s
24.  Stefan Wilson        Coyne/Honda      1m21.1770s  +2.7379s