Long Beach: Hunter-Reay tops opening IndyCar practice

Ryan Hunter-Reay

Andretti Autosport Honda driver Ryan Hunter-Reay turned a lap of 1m07.9335s to top practice 1 of IndyCar practice on the streets as Honda powered cars swept the top-7 times.

“I think we started here with a pretty good baseline (setup)," Hunter-Reay said after the practice. “It’s good fun getting out there, getting the first session in the books. It’s a good place for us to start.

“It’s going to change every session (after) more and more of the Indy car Firestone rubber goes down. It’ll continue to change and everybody will continue to progress."

Scott Dixon was 2nd in the #9 Ganassi Honda with a time of 1m08.1039s.

Colton Herta, Graham Rahal and Alexander Rossi rounded out the top-5.

Last year's winner Alexander Rossi only got to run 5 laps when a cut tire sent him to the pits and the teams decided to not run anymore and save tires. The fact that he finished in the top-5 with so few laps run is mighty impressive.

Sunday’s 85-lap race will be the 36th for Indy cars at Long Beach, dating to Mario Andretti’s win in 1984.

Practice 1 Results.