Fontana IndyCar: Hinchcliffe's Schmidt sub Briscoe leads practice
Ryan Briscoe set the pace in the opening practice session for Saturday's IndyCar race at Fontana
The Australian, who is filling in for the injured James Hinchcliffe at Schmidt, moved into first place in the final minutes with an average speed of 217.451mph and a time of 33.1109 seconds.
Up until that point the driver to beat had been Marco Andretti, but his 217.316mph effort was still enough to keep him in second place on the timing screens for a Honda 1-2.
Simon Pagenaud led the way for Chevrolet at 217.134mph, closely followed by Ganassi duo Charlie Kimball and Tony Kanaan.
A mostly uneventful session was punctuated just twice by yellow flags, both of which were for debris. An extra five minutes of green flag time was added on to compensate for the lost time.
In the absence of any on-track incidents, the story of the morning was the heat - temperatures were already in the mid-30s at 9:30am - and the high degree of tyre degradation, with speeds falling significantly after just a few laps.
Earlier, the track was opened for an hour-long rookie orientation session for Gabby Chaves, Sage Karam and Stefano Coletti. Chaves ended the morning as the quickest of that trio.
PRACTICE ONE TIMES:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Speed | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ryan Briscoe | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 217.451 | 33.1109s | - |
2 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 217.316 | 33.1315s | 0.0206s |
3 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 217.134 | 33.1593s | 0.0484s |
4 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 217.016 | 33.1773s | 0.0664s |
5 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 216.975 | 33.1836s | 0.0727s |
6 | Josef Newgarden | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 216.310 | 33.2856s | 0.1747s |
7 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 215.811 | 33.3626s | 0.2517s |
8 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 215.693 | 33.3808s | 0.2699s |
9 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 215.589 | 33.3969s | 0.2860s |
10 | Takuma Sato | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 215.159 | 33.4636s | 0.3527s |
11 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 214.740 | 33.5289s | 0.4180s |
12 | Gabby Chaves | Bryan Herta Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 214.578 | 33.5542s | 0.4433s |
13 | Sage Karam | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 214.449 | 33.5744s | 0.4635s |
14 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 214.440 | 33.5759s | 0.4650s |
15 | James Jakes | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 214.353 | 33.5895s | 0.4786s |
16 | Ed Carpenter | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 214.089 | 33.6309s | 0.5200s |
17 | Tristan Vautier | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 213.999 | 33.6450s | 0.5341s |
18 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 213.220 | 33.7679s | 0.6570s |
19 | Stefano Coletti | KV Racing Technology | Dallara/Chevrolet | 213.103 | 33.7865s | 0.6756s |
20 | Jack Hawksworth | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 213.087 | 33.7890s | 0.6781s |
21 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 212.517 | 33.8797s | 0.7688s |
22 | Sebastien Bourdais | KVSH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 212.451 | 33.8901s | 0.7792s |
23 | Pippa Mann | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 210.802 | 34.1553s | 1.0444s |
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