Pagenaud, the 2016 Long Beach winner, clocked a 1m07.1991s in the session, eclipsing two-time Long Beach winner Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport by 0.4021s. Pagenaud’s best time was two seconds quicker than Colton Herta’s first practice time from last year’s Long Beach in September.
Apart from the usual problems of drivers outbraking themselves and having harmless trips to run-off zones – Ganassi’s Scott Dixon and the Andretti cars of Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta were three high-profile candidates – the main incidents were caused by Jimmie Johnson who nosed into a tire wall after grabbing too much curb on corner entry, and Dalton Kellett who spun and stalled. Both incidents required a red flag.
Pato O’Ward smacked his left-rear against the wall and gave himself a puncture and a broken toe-link but the Arrow McLaren SP driver re-emerged and he swiftly got on his team-mate Felix Rosenqvist’s pace, although the pair were only 14th and 15th.
Behind Pagenaud and Rossi was series sophomore and St. Petersburg winner Scott McLaughlin who emerged as fastest of the Chevrolet drivers, just ahead of Team Penske team-mate Josef Newgarden.
Quickest of the Ganassi drivers was Marcus Ericsson, who edged ahead of Colton Herta, defending series champion Alex Palou and two-time Long Beach victor Will Power in the third of the Penske entries.
Two stars of the show were rookies Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing and Kyle Kirkwood of AJ Foyt Racing, who both squeezed into the top 10, taking advantage of their extra sets of Firestone tyres.
They led two series veterans, Dixon and Helio Castroneves, while Jack Harvey’s return after missing the Texas race due to a shunt saw him finish the day in 17th, behind one of his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team-mates Graham Rahal, but ahead of quick rookie Christian Lundgaard.
IndyCar Long Beach – FP1 results