Detroit IndyCar: Graham Rahal fastest in first practice
Graham Rahal was fastest in the first practice for IndyCar's double-header weekend in Detroit

The Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara-Honda driver was 0.1562 seconds faster than last weekend's Indianapolis 500 runner-up Helio Castroneves in second.
Castroneves' Penske Dallara-Chevrolet team-mate Josef Newgarden was third, less than half a tenth behind.
The session's only interruption was due to a late spin from Scott Dixon, in his first time in the car after his horrifying shunt at Indy just five days ago.
That caused the only red flag of the 45 minutes, though Dixon avoided damage to his car, and a few drivers down the order still managed to improve when the session was resumed for a final minute.
Alexander Rossi was fourth fastest, and was the top Andretti Autosport driver.
Will Power was fifth, almost half a second behind Rahal.
Dixon ended up seventh fastest ahead of his Chip Ganassi Racing team-mate Tony Kanaan.
Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top 10.

Ex-Formula 1 driver Esteban Gutierrez, in his first laps in an IndyCar, ended up 21st fastest for Dale Coyne Racing in place of the injured Sebastien Bourdais.
Only team-mate Ed Jones, who is also unfamiliar with this circuit, was slower.
Simon Pagenaud was 11th fastest, ahead of Indy 500 winner Takuma Sato.
Those in the top 10 in the points standings tended to avoid the track in the early part of the session, as they only had one set of the harder tyre to use in this practice, as opposed to two sets for those outside of the top 10.
PRACTICE TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1m15.3328s | - | 15 |
2 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m15.4890s | 0.1562s | 12 |
3 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m15.5384s | 0.2056s | 13 |
4 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Herta | Dallara/Honda | 1m15.7216s | 0.3888s | 13 |
5 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m15.8159s | 0.4831s | 15 |
6 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m15.9159s | 0.5831s | 17 |
7 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m15.9540s | 0.6212s | 11 |
8 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m15.9900s | 0.6572s | 13 |
9 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.0130s | 0.6802s | 15 |
10 | James Hinchcliffe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.0354s | 0.7026s | 14 |
11 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.1781s | 0.8453s | 13 |
12 | Takuma Sato | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.2165s | 0.8837s | 11 |
13 | Mikhail Aleshin | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.3861s | 1.0533s | 16 |
14 | J.R. Hildebrand | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.4302s | 1.0974s | 18 |
15 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.4507s | 1.1179s | 15 |
16 | Carlos Munoz | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.6096s | 1.2768s | 17 |
17 | Max Chilton | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m16.7793s | 1.4465s | 19 |
18 | Conor Daly | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.9432s | 1.6104s | 18 |
19 | Spencer Pigot | Ed Carpenter Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m17.0866s | 1.7538s | 17 |
20 | Oriol Servia | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1m17.9734s | 2.6406s | 15 |
21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m18.2289s | 2.8961s | 20 |
22 | Ed Jones | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m18.9603s | 3.6275s | 18 |
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