Toronto IndyCar: Juan Pablo Montoya quickest in opening practice
Juan Pablo Montoya led a Team Penske 1-2 in a slightly shortened opening practice session for this weekend's IndyCar race in Toronto
Penske had one of its cars at the top of the screens for the entire session, but Montoya made the position his own with a best lap of 1m00.6343s.
Simon Pagenaud, who had set the pace during the opening minutes, finished up second-fastest at 1m00.7922s.
Josef Newgarden completed the top three, while Graham Rahal once again led the way for Honda, ending the morning as the Japanese manufacturer's only representative in the top 10.
But although the results looked a little lopsided - first in favour of Penske, and more broadly in favour of Chevrolet - the field was actually fairly tight. The top nine were covered by just over 0.4s, and the top 18 were within one second of Montoya's time.
Elsewhere, Tristan Vautier and Rodolfo Gonzalez, who received late call-ups to drive the two Dale Coyne Racing entries, finished up in P22 and P23 respectively.
The session ran without incident until the last couple of minutes, when Scott Dixon came to a stop mid-way around the circuit.
That prompted a red flag to allow for the stranded Ganassi car to be retrieved, and with just 90s left on the clock, the decision was made to wave the cheqeuered flag.
PRACTICE TIMES:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Juan Pablo Montoya | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m00.6343s | - | 8 |
| 2 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m00.7922s | 0.1579s | 14 |
| 3 | Josef Newgarden | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m00.8363s | 0.2020s | 16 |
| 4 | Luca Filippi | CFH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m00.8500s | 0.2157s | 17 |
| 5 | Sebastien Bourdais | KVSH Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m00.8620s | 0.2277s | 13 |
| 6 | Will Power | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m00.8656s | 0.2313s | 12 |
| 7 | Helio Castroneves | Team Penske | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m00.8788s | 0.2445s | 13 |
| 8 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan | Dallara/Honda | 1m00.9330s | 0.2987s | 15 |
| 9 | Charlie Kimball | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.0852s | 0.4509s | 17 |
| 10 | Tony Kanaan | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.1744s | 0.5401s | 12 |
| 11 | Sebastian Saavedra | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.1890s | 0.5547s | 19 |
| 12 | Jack Hawksworth | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.2562s | 0.6219s | 18 |
| 13 | Takuma Sato | AJ Foyt Enterprises | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.2640s | 0.6297s | 18 |
| 14 | James Jakes | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.3277s | 0.6934s | 16 |
| 15 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.4586s | 0.8243s | 14 |
| 16 | Carlos Munoz | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.4588s | 0.8245s | 17 |
| 17 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m01.5101s | 0.8758s | 10 |
| 18 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m01.5950s | 0.9607s | 16 |
| 19 | Gabby Chaves | Bryan Herta Autosport | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.2061s | 1.5718s | 20 |
| 20 | Stefano Coletti | KV Racing Technology | Dallara/Chevrolet | 1m02.4942s | 1.8599s | 18 |
| 21 | Conor Daly | Schmidt Peterson Motorsports | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.6453s | 2.0110s | 19 |
| 22 | Tristan Vautier | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m02.8632s | 2.2289s | 15 |
| 23 | Rodolfo Gonzalez | Dale Coyne Racing | Dallara/Honda | 1m03.4852s | 2.8509s | 16 |
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