Alexander Rossi tops red-flagged first Road America IndyCar session
Alexander Rossi headed a trio of Team Penske drivers in a truncated first IndyCar practice session at Road America that was effectively ended early after Ryan Hunter-Reay crashed
Rossi set a fastest time of 1m43.3285s around the 4.048-mile circuit, the longest on the IndyCar calendar, in his Andretti Autosport Dallara-Honda midway through the 45-minute session.
That remained the best effort before Hunter-Reay spun at the fast Turn 14 right-hander at the end of the lap in the final 10 minutes, with the session red flagged as a result.
Reigning champion Simon Pagenaud was the fastest of the Penske runners and best-placed of the Chevrolet-powered cars in second, 0.234 seconds behind Rossi.
Will Power, the only previous winner at Road America in the field, was third and a further two tenths behind his team-mate having been fastest in the early part of the session.
Josef Newgarden was fourth, close to half a second down on Rossi's benchmark, ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing's Scott Dixon and Schmidt Peterson Motorsport's James Hinchcliffe.
Max Chilton was seventh ahead of Hunter-Reay, with Marco Andretti ninth and fourth Penske driver Helio Castroneves rounding out the top 10.
Hinchcliffe's team-mate for the session was fellow Canadian Robert Wickens.
The Mercedes DTM driver is standing in for Mikhail Aleshin for Friday's practice sessions, and was 20th of the 21 runners.
Aleshin had been unable to leave France due to visa issues after competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours last weekend, but was expected to travel back to the US on Friday evening.
FIRST PRACTICE RESULTS:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Herta | Dallara/Honda | 1m43.3285s | - | 7 |
| 2 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m43.5625s | 0.2340s | 9 |
| 3 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m43.7508s | 0.4223s | 11 |
| 4 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m43.7780s | 0.4495s | 9 |
| 5 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m43.8994s | 0.5709s | 8 |
| 6 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m43.9047s | 0.5762s | 8 |
| 7 | Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m44.0483s | 0.7198s | 11 |
| 8 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m44.0681s | 0.7396s | 8 |
| 9 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m44.0967s | 0.7682s | 9 |
| 10 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m44.3249s | 0.9964s | 8 |
| 11 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1m44.4590s | 1.1305s | 9 |
| 12 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m44.4748s | 1.1463s | 10 |
| 13 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m44.5882s | 1.2597s | 11 |
| 14 | Carlos Munoz | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m44.6224s | 1.2939s | 10 |
| 15 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m44.7711s | 1.4426s | 10 |
| 16 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m44.9998s | 1.6713s | 8 |
| 17 | Takuma Sato | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m45.3601s | 2.0316s | 8 |
| 18 | J.R. Hildebrand | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m45.6062s | 2.2777s | 11 |
| 19 | Esteban Gutierrez | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m45.6257s | 2.2972s | 4 |
| 20 | Robert Wickens | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m45.6823s | 2.3538s | 11 |
| 21 | Conor Daly | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m45.6920s | 2.3635s | 9 |
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