Bouncing back from a disappointing race at Iowa Speedway, Scott Dixon put his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda at the top of the times at Toronto, as Honda dominated the first session.
Dixon lapped the street course in 60.7474sec to beat Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing by 0.19sec.
Rahal, who qualified on the front row last year, was just 0.06sec faster than his teammate Takuma Sato, yet between them was Alexander Rossi’s Andretti Autosport machine, which tagged the wall on the final corner halfway through the session.
Marco Andretti was just 0.3sec off top spot in the second Andretti car, ahead of Sebastien Bourdais’ Dale Coyne Racing-with Vasser-Sullivan entry.
As at the last street course, Will Power was fastest of the Chevrolet runners, and Penske’s Indy 500 winner ended the session in seventh, 0.4sec from the ultimate pace.
Ryan Hunter-Reay rubbed the outside wall at Turn 1 but recovered to take eighth ahead of AJ Foyt Racing’s impressive rookie Matheus Leist and the second Ganassi car of Ed Jones.
It was not a strong session for Canada’s local heroes, although Robert Wickens did well to take 11th on his first encounter with the track in an IndyCar. However, his Schmidt Peterson Motorsports teammate, James Hinchcliffe, who won last week at Iowa was only 18th. The second Coyne car of another Canadian, Zachary Claman De Melo, went into the Turn 3 run-off and was only classified 19th.
Conor Daly’s first outing for Harding Racing-Chevy, in place of Gabby Chaves, produced P20. That put him ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing’s Jordan King, who ran out of fuel on course and brought out a red flag, Charlie Kimball’s Carlin Racing-Chevy and Rene Binder of Juncos Racing.
Source: Read Full Article