Bourdais tops IndyCar test at Sonoma
St. Petersburg winner Sebastien Bourdais put Dale Coyne Racing at the top of the timesheets in Honda’s 13-car test at Sonoma Raceway today.
Photo by: IndyCar Series
In the morning session, the 36-time winner set a 1min17.51sec lap, a mere 0.02sec ahead of his nearest pursuer, Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay. However, as times improved in the afternoon, Bourdais pulled a couple of tenths clear, to end the day on a 1min17.06, eclipsing Hunter-Reay’s teammate, Alexander Rossi.
“With the cooler temperatures, there’s a lot of downforce in the car and a lot of grip,” said Hunter-Reay, who has posted top-five finishes in his last three Sonoma starts. “It’s a bit different than when we’re here at the end of the season, when the track temps are hotter and we’re sliding around a bit more.
“It’s great to get back in the car here. It’s a very demanding track and there’s a small window to get it all right. We’re trying to tweak the settings a bit to make that window a bit bigger.”
A third Andretti car, that of Marco Andretti, was third fastest in both sessions, although his engine let go towards the close of the day’s activities, having chalked up 90 laps, while the team’s newest driver, Takuma Sato, was fourth in the morning, fifth in the afternoon.
Four-time champion, Chip Ganassi Racing’s, Scott Dixon turned only 16 laps in the morning, but during his 52 laps in the afternoon session, he threw in a 1min17.39sec lap to end the day fourth fastest. One of his teammates, Max Chilton was sixth fastest, quick enough to narrowly beat Schmidt Peterson Motorsports duo James Hinchcliffe and Mikhail Aleshin.
Bourdais’ rookie teammate, Ed Jones, was confined to just 11 laps in the morning session due to a technical problem, but cut 33 laps, as well as his best lap time, to beat two Ganassi cars of Charlie Kimball and Tony Kanaan in the afternoon.
Morning times
- Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing 1min17.51sec
- Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport 1min17.53sec
- Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport 1min17.55sec
- Takuma Sato, Andretti Autosport 1min17.67sec
- Alexander Rossi, Andretti-Herta Autosport 1min17.86sec
- Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1min17.92sec
- Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing 1min17.94sec
- Max Chilton, Chip Ganassi Racing 1min18.03sec
- Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing 1min18.10sec
- Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing 1min18.19sec
- James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 1min18.25sec
- Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports 1min18.37sec
- Ed Jones, Dale Coyne Racing 1min19.56sec
Afternoon times
- Bourdais 1min17.06sec
- Rossi 1min17.24sec
- Andretti 1min17.25sec
- Dixon 1min17.39sec
- Sato 1min17.44sec
- Chilton 1min17.53sec
- Hinchcliffe 1min17.55sec
- Hunter-Reay 1min17.64sec
- Aleshin 1min17.64sec
- Rahal 1min17.69sec
- Jones 1min17.73sec
- Kimball 1min17.89sec
- Kanaan 1min18.18sec
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