Marco Andretti Tops First Indianapolis 500 Practice Session

The 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season is in its sixth race with the Indianapolis 500. Who looks solid early on after the first practice session?

Andretti Autosport’s Marco Andretti topped the opening practice session for the Indianapolis 500 with a top lap speed of 226.338 miles per hour (39.764 seconds) around the 4-turn, 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval in Speedway, Indiana.

Scott Dixon was 2nd fastest driver at the end of the session, but he was over 1 mile per hour slower than Andretti. Of the top 11 fastest cars in the first practice session, nine are Honda-powered. Three of Andretti Autosport’s six cars finished in the top 10 in the session, and Andretti Autosport was the only team to pull that off.

The fastest Chevrolet driver in the practice session was two-time Indy 500 polesitter Ed Carpenter, who finished 3rd fastest on the speed chart. The only other Chevrolet driver in the top 11 was Will Power, who was 7th fastest. Of the 33 race entrants, only Buddy Lazier did not practice today.

Here is the full finishing order of the first practice session. See lap speeds and times and other technical information about today’s practice session here.

Note: (R) denotes an Indianapolis 500 rookie.

1. Marco Andretti, #27, Andretti Autosport, Honda
2. Scott Dixon, #9, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda
3. Ed Carpenter, #20, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet
4. Sebastien Bourdais, #18, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda
5. Ryan Hunter-Reay, #28, Andretti Autosport, Honda
6. Graham Rahal, #15, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda
7. Will Power, #12, Team Penske, Chevrolet
8. Tony Kanaan, #10, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda
9. Mikhail Aleshin, #7, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda
10. Takuma Sato, #26, Andretti Autosport, Honda
11. Oriol Servia, #16, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda
12. Juan Pablo Montoya, #22, Team Penske, Chevrolet
13. Alexander Rossi, #98, Andretti Herta Autosport, Honda
14. Sage Karam, #24, Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, Chevrolet
15. Max Chilton, #8, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda
16. Simon Pagenaud, #1, Team Penske, Chevrolet
17. JR Hildebrand, #21, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet
18. Charlie Kimball, #83, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda
19. Fernando Alonso (R), #29, Andretti Autosport, Honda
20. Carlos Munoz, #14, AJ Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet
21. Sebastian Saavedra, #17, Juncos Racing, Chevrolet
22. Ed Jones (R), #19, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda
23. Jay Howard, #77, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda
24. Josef Newgarden, #2, Team Penske, Chevrolet
25. James Hinchcliffe, #5, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda
26. Helio Castroneves, #3, Team Penske, Chevrolet
27. Pippa Mann, #63, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda
28. Conor Daly, #4, AJ Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet
29. Spencer Pigot, #11, Juncos Racing, Chevrolet
30. Zach Veach (R), #40, AJ Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet
31. Jack Harvey (R), #50, Andretti Autosport, Honda
32. Gabby Chaves, #88, Harding Racing, Chevrolet

Schedule

The next practice session for the race is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Tuesday, May 16th, 2017. It is set to last from 12:00 PM ET to 6:00 PM ET.  Qualifying for the race will take place on Saturday, May 20th, 2017 and Sunday, May 21st, 2017 and is set to last from 11:00 AM ET to 5:50 PM ET on Saturday and 2:45 PM ET to 5:45 PM ET on Sunday. The race is scheduled for Sunday, May 28th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ET. For a full pre-race and race schedule, click here.

Next: Way-Too-Early Indy 500 Driver Rankings

Are these practice results any indication of what we’ll see in the Indy 500 in less than two weeks? Be sure to follow me on Instagram as well as Beyond the Flag on both Instagram and Twitter. Also, don’t forget to follow along with Beyond the Flag for the latest news, opinions, and analysis stemming from a number of different motorsports series. You don’t want to miss any of it.