Andretti Autosport led the way around the historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway as practice for the 100th running of Indianapolis 500 got underway on Monday.
All five of the Honda-powered Andretti Autosport cars were inside the top six, and were only denied a clean sweep of the top five by a late lap by Scott Dixon that saw the Chip Ganassi Racing driver move into fifth.
Marco Andretti set the best time of the day of 39.3051s, a speed of 228.978mph, ahead of team-mates Carlos Munoz and Ryan Hunter-Reay, and the Andretti Herta Autosport entry of rookie Alexander Rossi.
Townsend Bell was sixth for Andretti Autosport behind Dixon, while another Chip Ganassi Racing entry Charlie Kimball was seventh.
Kimball has switched numbers for the event, changing from his usual #83 to the #42 in order to promote the 42-hour duration of Tresiba, a long-acting basal insulin used for blood sugar control by adults with diabetes, something the American has been living with since being diagnosed in 2007.
Graham Rahal placed his Rahal Letterman Lanigan with Theodore Racing machine into eighth place, with Will Power the leading Team Penske entry on a relatively quiet day for the team. Bryan Clauson completed the top ten for Dale Coyne Racing/Jonathan Byrd’s Racing.
Rossi is one of five Indy 500 debutants in 2016, and the young American successfully passed his rookie orientation session, as did Matt Brabham (KV Racing/Pirtek Team Murray), Max Chilton (Chip Ganassi Racing), Spencer Pigot (Rahal Letterman Langian Racing) and Stefan Wilson (KV Racing Technology).
Bell and Clauson were amongst five drivers who took a refresher test during the two-hour rookie orientation session, along with Sage Karam (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing), JR Hildebrand (Ed Carpenter Racing) and Oriol Servia (Schmidt Peterson Motorsports).
All thirty-three entries took to the track on Monday, and completed 1474 laps of the famed oval circuit, with practice set to resume at midday local time on Tuesday, weather permitting.
Credit: Chris Jones / IndyCar
Indianapolis 500 Rookie Orientation Results
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Indianapolis 500 Day 1 Practice Results
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