The 2017 Verizon IndyCar Series season is in its 12th race with the Honda Indy Toronto. Who looks solid early on?
Team Penske’s Helio Castroneves topped this weekend’s first IndyCar practice session on the streets of Toronto, Ontario with a top lap time of 61.1211 seconds (105.194 miles per hour) around the 11-turn, 1.786-mile temporary street course.
Castroneves led a top 3 Team Penske sweep on the speed chart. His teammates Josef Newgarden and Simon Pagenaud finished 2nd and 3rd quickest on the speed chart in their Chevrolet cars. The fastest driver of a Honda car was Scott Dixon, who was 4th fastest in the practice session, and the fastest driver of a Chevrolet car not driving for Team Penske was Spencer Pigot, who was 6th fastest in the practice session.
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Despite Chevrolet drivers taking the top 3 and four of the top 6 spots on the speed chart, drivers of the Honda cars were able to take eight of the top 12 spots in what was a pretty even practice session in terms of the engine and aero kit manufacturer battle. Aside of the top 4 Chevrolet cars, the next highest driver of a Chevrolet car was Carlos Munoz, who was 13th fastest in the practice session.
The series lone full-time rookie, Ed Jones, was 12th quickest in his Dale Coyne Racing Honda. Jones’ rookie teammate Esteban Gutierrez finished 17th quickest in the practice session. Sebastian Saavedra, who is filling in for Mikhail Aleshin at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, finished 21st quickest in the practice session. Full practice results are located at IndyCar.com.
Remaining Weekend Schedule
The second practice session takes place this afternoon at 2:15 PM ET. The third practice session takes place tomorrow morning at 10:00 AM ET before qualifying starts at 2:15 PM ET. Qualifying will be broadcast on a delay at 6:30 PM ET on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN). Morning warm-up for the race will take place on Sunday, July 16th at 11:30 AM ET. The race itself starts at 3:40 PM ET on Sunday and can be seen live on CNBC starting at 3:00 PM ET. It can also be seen on a delay at 7:00 PM ET on NBCSN.
Next: IndyCar Driver Power Rankings
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