Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Barber IndyCar: Pagenaud leads Penske top four sweep in practice

Reigning champion Simon Pagenaud set the pace in first practice for IndyCar's Barber Motorsports Park round, as Penske drivers filled the top four places

The 45-minute session was delayed by an hour following an incident at the fast Turn 3 in a support series practice session, which resulted in Armco barriers requiring repairs.

The delay has affected all of Friday's scheduled running in Alabama.

When IndyCar practice eventually started, Pagenaud led a Penske sweep of the top four, with team-mates Josef Newgarden, Will Power and Helio Castroneves just behind, all covered by three tenths.

Newgarden wound up 0.071 seconds behind Pagenaud's 1m08.110s benchmark, which was set early.

Alexander Rossi was the fastest Honda-powered driver, ahead of his Andretti Autosport team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay.

Graham Rahal, James Hinchcliffe, Sebastien Bourdais and Scott Dixon completed the top 10, while the best Chevrolet runner other than the Penske quartet was Carlos Munoz in 13th.

With seven minutes to go, points leader Bourdais hit an advertising boarding, bringing out a red flag.

The session resumed with a few minutes remaining, prompting a flurry of on-track action, including Max Chilton blocking Pagenaud and Power and Rossi improving.

Mikhail Aleshin spun his Schmidt Peterson-Honda entry at Turn 2 earlier in the session, but got out of the gravel trap before causing a red flag.

He would repeat the slide later, but on that occasion managed to hold it, on his way to 11th.

Newcomer Zach Veach was slowest of the 21 runners, 2.524s off the overall pace and 1.652s behind Ed Carpenter Racing team-mate Spencer Pigot, as he steps in for the injured JR Hildebrand.

PRACTICE ONE RESULTS:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Simon Pagenaud Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m08.1104s - 21
2 Josef Newgarden Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m08.1822s 0.0718s 14
3 Will Power Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m08.2186s 0.1082s 17
4 Helio Castroneves Team Penske Dallara/Chevrolet 1m08.4112s 0.3008s 15
5 Alexander Rossi Andretti Herta Dallara/Honda 1m08.4560s 0.3456s 15
6 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 1m08.5595s 0.4491s 10
7 Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Dallara/Honda 1m08.6142s 0.5038s 18
8 James Hinchcliffe Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 1m08.6347s 0.5243s 11
9 Sebastien Bourdais Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 1m08.6737s 0.5633s 12
10 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 1m08.6753s 0.5649s 14
11 Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Dallara/Honda 1m08.7077s 0.5973s 15
12 Marco Andretti Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 1m08.7258s 0.6154s 10
13 Carlos Munoz AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 1m08.7488s 0.6384s 16
14 Takuma Sato Andretti Autosport Dallara/Honda 1m08.7627s 0.6523s 14
15 Ed Jones Dale Coyne Racing Dallara/Honda 1m08.8893s 0.7789s 12
16 Spencer Pigot Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m09.0092s 0.8988s 18
17 Conor Daly AJ Foyt Enterprises Dallara/Chevrolet 1m09.0238s 0.9134s 15
18 Tony Kanaan Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 1m09.0329s 0.9225s 15
19 Charlie Kimball Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 1m09.0779s 0.9675s 16
20 Max Chilton Chip Ganassi Racing Dallara/Honda 1m09.1699s 1.0595s 15
21 Zach Veach Ed Carpenter Racing Dallara/Chevrolet 1m10.6346s 2.5242s 20

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Kurt Busch: Fernando Alonso perfect for Indianapolis 500
Next article Barber IndyCar: Andretti ends Penske domination in second practice

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe