Toronto IndyCar: Pagenaud excels in second practice
Defending IndyCar Series champion Simon Pagenaud looked extremely strong in second practice at Toronto, moving the #1 Penske-Chevrolet to P1 by 0.23sec.
The Frenchman lapped the 1.786-mile course in 60.2573sec, at an average speed of 106.702mph, to eclipse last year’s Toronto winner and teammate Will Power by 0.2271sec, and last year’s polesitter, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, by 0.3680sec.
Graham Rahal was fourth quickest for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda ahead of this morning’s pacesetter Helio Castroneves.
Marco Andretti recovered from missing half the morning session by setting sixth fastest time for Andretti Autosport-Honda, albeit 0.57sec off top spot, ahead of Josef Newgarden’s Penske, and two more Andretti cars, that of Takuma Sato and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
JR Hildebrand put Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet in the Top 10 ahead of Ganassi’s Max Chilton and Tony Kanaan.
There were two red flags – one for Esteban Gutierrez shunting relatively gently at Turn 1 but spraying debris from his Dale Coyne Racing-Honda’s front wing, and the other for Carlos Munoz’s AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet coming to a halt in Turn 2.
Reassuringly for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports-Honda, Sebastian Saavedra, replacing Mikhail Aleshin in the #7 car, was just 1.9sec off Pagenaud’s pace and just 0.7sec slower than teammate James Hinchcliffe.
Practice results:
| Pos. | # | Driver | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |  Simon Pagenaud |
1'00.2573 | |
| 2 | 12 |  Will Power |
1'00.4844 | 0.2271 |
| 3 | 9 |  Scott Dixon |
1'00.6253 | 0.3680 |
| 4 | 15 |  Graham Rahal |
1'00.6388 | 0.3815 |
| 5 | 3 |  Helio Castroneves |
1'00.6485 | 0.3912 |
| 6 | 27 | Marco Andretti |
1'00.8321 | 0.5748 |
| 7 | 2 | Josef Newgarden |
1'00.8540 | 0.5967 |
| 8 | 26 |  Takuma Sato |
1'00.9509 | 0.6936 |
| 9 | 28 | Ryan Hunter-Reay |
1'00.9692 | 0.7119 |
| 10 | 21 | J.R. Hildebrand |
1'01.0735 | 0.8162 |
| 11 | 8 |  Max Chilton |
1'01.0883 | 0.8310 |
| 12 | 10 | Tony Kanaan |
1'01.0964 | 0.8391 |
| 13 | 20 | Spencer Pigot |
1'01.1517 | 0.8944 |
| 14 | 98 | Alexander Rossi |
1'01.3164 | 1.0591 |
| 15 | 4 | Conor Daly |
1'01.3930 | 1.1357 |
| 16 | 5 |  James Hinchcliffe |
1'01.4874 | 1.2301 |
| 17 | 14 |  Carlos Munoz |
1'01.4927 | 1.2354 |
| 18 | 83 | Charlie Kimball |
1'01.5214 | 1.2641 |
| 19 | 18 |  Esteban Gutierrez |
1'01.7637 | 1.5064 |
| 20 | 19 |  Ed Jones |
1'01.8670 | 1.6097 |
| 21 | 7 | Sebastian Saavedra |
1'02.1493 | 1.8920 |
Share Or Save This Story
Alex Zanardi: The man whose name is a synonym for “hero”
Remembering Michele Alboreto: F1 ace, Le Mans winner and a good man
IMSA Laguna Seca: Ganassi Cadillac holds off Porsche for victory
Brennan Poole to leave Alpha Prime Racing; team owners 'disappointed' to see him go
Oscar Piastri on his Singapore puncture: “Ironically, it probably helped”
Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup at Charlotte after dramatic finish
Charles Leclerc admits he missed a chance against Max Verstappen – but not the obvious one
Inside AJ Foyt Racing’s transition: Hauger’s arrival, Ferrucci’s future, and the Pierson waiting game
You Ask The Questions: David Malukas
Top 10 Ganassi IndyCar drivers of all time
Alex Palou still unstoppable as Nashville win edges him closer to fifth IndyCar title
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments