Photo Credit: Chris Owens/IndyCar
Friday was a P-1 kind of day for Scott Dixon after posting the fastest lap in both the first and second practice sessions at the Honda Indy of Toronto.
“I’m surprised how quick the cars are, considering the less amount of downforce. Almost 1,400 lbs less,” Dixon said after practice. “I think we’re faster than the practices last year. For us, the PNC Bank car rolled off fast. It’s always nice when you have that opportunity … I expect tomorrow, the competition, to be pretty tight.”
The championship leader had the fastest lap of 59.075 seconds, nearly half a second faster than Takuma Sato who placed second in the afternoon session. Sato, who led most of the session, was the first driver to score a sub-one-minute lap this weekend.
Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal were third and fourth in the session with Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi rounding out the top-five.
The slick Toronto race track proved to be more of a havoc than it did in the morning session as it continued to heat up. Ryan Hunter-Reay and Rahal both found themselves going for a spin at points during practice. Will Power, the 2016 race winner on the Streets of Toronto, also had a skirmish with the wall and found himself in the runoff at turn one late in the session.
Sixth in practice was last weekend’s second-place finisher at Iowa Speedway, Spencer Pigot. Josef Newgarden, Hunter-Reay, Sebastien Bourdais and hometown favourite James Hinchcliffe completed the top-10 drivers.
Other Canadians Robert Wickens and Zachary Claman de Melo were 13th and 23rd in practice.
Full Honda Indy practice results
