Juan Pablo Montoya was quickest in opening practice for this weekends Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Friday as Team Penske once again led the way.
The veteran Colombian set the best time of 1m08.1290s, almost a quarter of a second clear of team-mate Will Power, while the best non-Penske driver was Jack Hawksworth, who took his AJ Foyt Enterprises entry to an excellent third with a best lap of 1m08.4839s.
Josef Newgarden was fourth quickest for Ed Carpenter Racing, while Takuma Sato made it a good session for the Foyt team in fifth, ahead of James Hinchcliffe of Schmidt Peterson Motorsports.
Ryan Hunter-Reay, on double duty this weekend at Long Beach as he also races in the WeatherTech United Sports Car race alongside Marc Goossens with the VisitFlorida Racing Corvette DP team, was seventh quickest for Andretti Autosport, ahead of Penske’s Helio Castroneves, team-mate Carlos Munoz, and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon.
Alexander Rossi caused a mid-session red flag when he crashed his Andretti Herta Autosports car at turn eight, resulting in the session being halted while his car was retrieved and the tyre barrier repaired.
The American driver ended the session at the back of the field in twenty-first, while Briton Max Chilton was nineteenth for Chip Ganassi Racing on his first visit to the Californian street track, just behind championship leader Simon Pagenaud, who could not match the times of his Penske team-mates during the session.
Long Beach Free Practice 1 Times
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