Indianapolis 500 winner Pagenaud tops practice for IndyCar Toronto – IndyCar

Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Simon Pagenaud went fastest in second practice for Honda Indy Toronto, just beating Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Felix Rosenqvist.

The 2019 Indianapolis 500 winner set a time of 59.8708s around the 1.786-mile street course with Rosenqvist a mere 0.0603s behind him.

Pagenaud, who claimed pole at the Toronto circuit in ’17, had a clear edge over his Penske team-mates – eclipsing Josef Newgarden and Will Power by over half a second, with the drivers trialling Firestone alternate compound tires for the only time before qualifying.

Sebastien Bourdais was barely more than a tenth off top spot for Dayle Coyne Racing, also setting a time under the 1-minute barrier, while Spencer Pigot had a very encouraging run to fourth for Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy to beat the second Ganassi car of practice one pacesetter Scott Dixon by a tenth.

Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti each took sixth and seventh respectively ahead of Newgarden, Andretti Autosport’s Ryan Hunter-Reay and Power.

Road America winner Alexander Rossi had a scrappy session, clattering the final turn with his rightside rear and front wheels, and then losing five minutes for stopping on track with a bent left-front wheel after scraping it on the wall at the inside of Turn 9.

Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ rookie Marcus Ericsson also endured a messy practice, smacking the final turn wall with his right-rear, bouncing off the outside wall at Turn 5, visiting an escape road and then having a near miss with another tire barrier.

Unsurprisingly, Ericsson was last, as series returnee Sage Karam made gains on the understanding of his Carlin-Chevrolet and drew well within two seconds of Pagenaud’s pacesetting time.

First free practice results

Second free practice results