Scott Dixon set the pace in both free practice sessions as the Verizon IndyCar Series made its return to the Watkins Glen International on Friday.
The New Zealander led the heavily disrupted opening session following a crash for Conor Daly by 0.3626 seconds, and then repeated the feat in the second session, albeit by a reduced 0.1587 seconds.
Daly caused a long stoppage in the opening session after losing control of his Dale Coyne Racing machine on the exit of turn six, with the exit kerbs spinning him across the track and into the barriers, with water on those kerbs being blamed.
Twenty minutes were used up to ensure all of the kerbs around the track were dry, but the incident ended Daly’s session and gave his mechanics a lot of work to do to get his car repaired to allow him to participate in the second session.
Dixon hit the top of the time sheets once the session resumed, with the Chip Ganassi Racing driver ending with a best time of 1:23.8921, while KVSH Racing’s Sebastien Bourdais ended second fastest, ahead of Team Penske’s Will Power.
Dixon’s team-mate Tony Kanaan and last weekend’s Texas winner Graham Rahal completed the top five.
The second session was also headed by Dixon with a time of 1:22.8740, with Helio Castroneves improving to second for Team Penske after being ninth in the first session, with Power again third, 0.1977 seconds down.
Kanaan again placed fourth, while Team Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya completed the top five.
The biggest talking points of the session were incidents for Kanaan and for championship leader Simon Pagenaud. Kanaan spun at The Boot, just about avoiding the barriers, but Pagenaud did hit the barriers after his Penske maching got loose at turn seven, ending his session. The Frenchman had finished eleventh in the session, having finished eighth in the first.
Watkins Glen International Free Practice 1 Result
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Watkins Glen International Free Practice 2 Result
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