Detroit IndyCar: Tony Kanaan fastest in first practice
Tony Kanaan was fastest in the opening practice session for this weekend's IndyCar double-header in Detroit
The Brazilian went to the top in the final minutes of the session with a 1m16.2931s lap to bump Ganassi team-mate Sage Karam from the top spot by 0.2s.
Rookie Karam's best time was still good enough to keep him in second place for a Ganassi one-two.
There were shades of last weekend's epic Penske versus Ganassi battle at the Indianpolis 500 at the top of the order, with three Penske drivers rounding out the top five.
Coincidentally the one Penske driver who was not among them was Indy winner Juan Pablo Montoya, who led the session early on but eventually dropped down to tenth.
Honda arrived in Detroit with a new configuration to its front wing, but this morning was all about Chevrolet: Foyt's Takuma Sato was the only driver from the HPD camp to finish the session within one second of Kanaan's time.
The session was interrupted four times by red flags, although all were prompted by very minor incidents, and the teams were able to quickly resume running in each case.
Josef Newgarden, Scott Dixon and Karam all caused stoppages with spins, while the other red flag came out when Graham Rahal and Rodolfo Gonzalez made light contact with the wall within a couple of minutes of each other.
FREE PRACTICE TIMES
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m16.2931s | 23 |
| 2 | Sage Karam | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.2004s | 28 |
| 3 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.4762s | 22 |
| 4 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.5803s | 28 |
| 5 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.6038s | 22 |
| 6 | Stefano Coletti | KV Racing Technology | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.6971s | 27 |
| 7 | Sebastien Bourdais | KVSH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.8169s | 26 |
| 8 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.8498s | 20 |
| 9 | Takuma Sato | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 0.8533s | 22 |
| 10 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 0.9401s | 22 |
| 11 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1.0858s | 22 |
| 12 | Jack Hawksworth | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1.1957s | 20 |
| 13 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1.3418s | 20 |
| 14 | Josef Newgarden | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1.4166s | 20 |
| 15 | Luca Filippi | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1.4690s | 24 |
| 16 | James Jakes | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1.5713s | 26 |
| 17 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1.5969s | 19 |
| 18 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1.6399s | 19 |
| 19 | Tristan Vautier | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1.8202s | 21 |
| 20 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 2.0779s | 22 |
| 21 | Conor Daly | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 2.1557s | 25 |
| 22 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 2.5208s | 21 |
| 23 | Gabby Chaves | Bryan Herta Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 3.0253s | 25 |
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