Simon Pagenaud leads Edmonton IndyCar practice
Simon Pagenaud opened this weekend's IndyCar round at Edmonton by setting the fastest time in the first practice session for the Schmidt Hamilton team
The Frenchman's best lap of 1m16.5391s was well under last year's pole time of 1m18.5165s set by Takuma Sato, and put him almost 0.4 seconds clear of Foyt's Mike Conway in second place. Justin Wilson (Dale Coyne) was third-fastest.
For most of the session, the man to beat was rookie Josef Newgarden, who set a benchmark of 1m17.1461s during the first half hour, when running was restricted to drivers outside the top 10 in the points. But even after the track was opened to the entire field, Newgarden's time held until the final five minutes, and he still finished the session in fifth.
Current points leader Ryan Hunter-Reay ended the morning 22nd fastest, one place behind main championship rival Will Power. The American was forced to sit out the final two minutes of the session for unsportsmanlike conduct following an incident with Wilson's team-mate James Jakes.
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt Dallara-Honda 1m16.5391s 2. Mike Conway Foyt Dallara-Honda 1m16.9309s + 0.3918s 3. Justin Wilson Coyne Dallara-Honda 1m16.9718s + 0.4327s 4. Graham Rahal Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m17.0914s + 0.5523s 5. Josef Newgarden Fisher Dallara-Honda 1m17.1461s + 0.6070s 6. Dario Franchitti Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m17.1985s + 0.6594s 7. Scott Dixon Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m17.2414s + 0.7023s 8. James Jakes Coyne Dallara-Honda 1m17.3587s + 0.8196s 9. Rubens Barrichello KV Dallara-Chevy 1m17.3888s + 0.8497s 10. JR Hildebrand Panther Dallara-Chevy 1m17.3949s + 0.8558s 11. Alex Tagliani Herta Dallara-Honda 1m17.4025s + 0.8634s 12. Ryan Briscoe Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m17.4110s + 0.8719s 13. Charlie Kimball Ganassi Dallara-Honda 1m17.5277s + 0.9886s 14. Takuma Sato Rahal Dallara-Honda 1m17.6276s + 1.0885s 15. Marco Andretti Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m17.6346s + 1.0955s 16. Helio Castroneves Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m17.6804s + 1.1413s 17. EJ Viso KV Dallara-Chevy 1m17.7762s + 1.2371s 18. James Hinchcliffe Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m17.8111s + 1.2720s 19. Tony Kanaan KV Dallara-Chevy 1m17.8311s + 1.2920s 20. Sebastien Bourdais Dragon Dallara-Chevy 1m17.8715s + 1.3324s 21. Will Power Penske Dallara-Chevy 1m17.9286s + 1.3895s 22. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Dallara-Chevy 1m18.1163s + 1.5772s 23. Simona de Silvestro HVM Dallara-Lotus 1m18.1858s + 1.6467s 24. Oriol Servia Panther/DRR Dallara-Chevy 1m18.4726s + 1.9335s 25. Ed Carpenter Carpenter Dallara-Chevy 1m18.8988s + 2.3597s
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
The Indy 500 poleman who didn't live to raceday
Fast Failures: American heartbreak at the Indianapolis 500
Indy Lights champion Spencer Pigot gets three race IndyCar deal
IndyCar 2023 season review: Meyer Shank Racing
Rosenqvist joins Meyer Shank Racing for 2024 IndyCar season, Pagenaud departs
Pagenaud ruled out for rest of IndyCar season, Blomqvist in at MSR
Latvala: Neuville, Evans tied for WRC Croatia lead "something special"
WEC Imola: Ferrari remains on top in FP2 as Fuoco beats Porsche
WRC Croatia: Neuville, Evans tied for the lead after eight stages
WIN! A VIP Race Weekend Experience in Monaco
The apprenticeship that will aid Ilott's IndyCar to WEC switch at Jota
The long evolution of Dallara's Indy 500 winner
Nigel Mansell’s greatest F1 and Indycar drives
How Ericsson achieved Indy immortality as Ganassi's main man stumbled
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments