Power over Rossi in opening Indy GP practice

Will Power

Last year's Indy GP winner Will Power (Chevy) turned a lap of 1m10.087s to beat Alexander Rossi (Honda) by just 0.033s in opening practice for the Indy GP to be run Saturday on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course.

Jordan King (Honda) was third quick for Ed Carpenter Racing.

“We had a good car here at the test we had a couple months ago – we were quickest," Rossi said, referring to a chilly manufacturer test day on March 23. “We came back with quite a bit of confidence.

“It’s not too different from any other track. The big thing you’re trying to maximize is braking zones because there’s such long straights here with two very heavy braking zones. You can win or lose a lot of time there."

Rookie Jordan King, who has shown impressive flashes of speed competing on the road and street circuits in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet, was third quick in the opening session at 1:10.1551 (125.157 mph). While happy with the result, the 24-year-old Brit knows there’s still work to do to get the car to agree with the much warmer conditions this weekend compared to the March test.

Rossi locks a wheel and goes 2nd quick

“There’s a few tricks that have been thrown up in the last two months with just the weather changes," King said, “but I’m sure we’ll get on top of it. So far it’s looking all right, so we’ll see how it goes."

King qualified fourth and led five laps in the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix before finishing 21st. His best result in three races this season was 14th in last month’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama presented by America’s First.

“I’ve tried not to put any more pressure on myself," King said of trying to improve the finish this weekend. “Everything’s been really good, the speed’s been really good. We probably should have had two podiums and top-five finishes. We know it’s there, it’s just kind or ironing out the few little creases and we’ll get it."

Sebastien Bourdais and Takuma Sato rounded out the top-5 in their Hondas.

A second 45-minute practice starts at 12:30 p.m. ET today, ahead of Verizon P1 Award qualifying to determine the pole winner at 4:30 p.m.

Results

Pos	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	12	Will Power	1:10.087	–.—-	–.—-	18	125.279	Chevy	Team Penske
2	27	Alexander Rossi	1:10.120	0.0332	0.0332	18	125.220	Honda	Andretti Autosport
3	20	Jordan King	1:10.155	0.0685	0.0353	15	125.157	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
4	18	Sebastien Bourdais	1:10.179	0.0925	0.0240	13	125.114	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing
5	30	Takuma Sato	1:10.182	0.0958	0.0033	18	125.108	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan
6	1	Josef Newgarden	1:10.280	0.1936	0.0978	17	124.934	Chevy	Team Penske
7	9	Scott Dixon	1:10.286	0.1992	0.0056	18	124.924	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
8	21	Spencer Pigot	1:10.318	0.2314	0.0322	17	124.867	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
9	10	Ed Jones	1:10.442	0.3556	0.1242	21	124.647	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing Teams
10	3	Helio Castroneves	1:10.459	0.3723	0.0167	18	124.617	Chevy	Team Penske
11	26	Zach Veach	1:10.487	0.4003	0.0280	18	124.568	Honda	Andretti Autosport
12	15	Graham Rahal	1:10.493	0.4059	0.0056	18	124.558	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan
13	98	Marco Andretti	1:10.523	0.4367	0.0308	16	124.504	Honda	Andretti Herta Autosport
14	19	Zachary De Melo	1:10.578	0.4915	0.0548	16	124.407	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing
15	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1:10.590	0.5037	0.0122	14	124.385	Honda	Andretti Autosport
16	6	Robert Wickens	1:10.608	0.5210	0.0173	18	124.355	Honda	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
17	14	Tony Kanaan	1:10.611	0.5243	0.0033	15	124.349	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
18	22	Simon Pagenaud	1:10.642	0.5554	0.0311	19	124.294	Chevy	Team Penske
19	4	Matheus Leist	1:10.921	0.8340	0.2786	17	123.806	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
20	5	James Hinchcliffe	1:10.935	0.8485	0.0145	16	123.781	Honda	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports
21	23	Charlie Kimball	1:11.020	0.9338	0.0853	19	123.632	Chevy	Carlin
22	88	Gabby Chaves	1:11.100	1.0133	0.0795	15	123.494	Chevy	Harding Racing
23	59	Max Chilton	1:11.228	1.1413	0.1280	18	123.272	Chevy	Carlin
24	32	Kyle Kaiser	1:11.376	1.2890	0.1477	17	123.017	Chevy	Juncos Racing