Friday, July 12, 2013

Hunter-Reay Leads IndyCar First Practice From Toronto

Ryan Hunter-Reay led the first practice at Toronto. The defending Honda Indy Toronto winner Ryan Hunter-Reay was fastest with a lap of 1:00.6082 seconds. Josef Newgarden was second, 0.0769 second back. Ryan Briscoe was third with Tristan Vautier fourth. Marco Andretti jumped to fifth late ahead of Will Power and Tony Kanaan.

Honda took the next two positions with James Jakes eighth and Dario Franchitti ninth. 2004 Toronto winner Sébastien Bourdias was tenth. Hometown favorite James Hinchcliffe was eleventh ahead of Pocono winner Scott Dixon and 2005 Toronto winner Justin Wilson. Canadian Alex Tagliani was fourteenth with Charlie Kimball fifteenth.

Points leader Helio Castroneves was sixteenth ahead of Graham Rahal and EJ Viso. Sebastián Saavedra and Takuma Sato rounded out the top twenty. Simona de Silvestro was twenty-first ahead the Belle Isle winners Simon Pagenaud and Mike Conway. Ed Carpenter rounded out the field.

A half second covered the top fifteen times with three quarters of a second covering to eighteenth.

The teams had to perform one standing start during the practice. According to MoreFrontWing, the Hondas were getting a better jump during the standing start practices than the Chevrolets.

There were two incidents during the session. Will Power brought out a red flag after getting into the tires in turn three while Dario Franchitti brought out a red flag with fifteen minutes remaining after making slight contact with the wall in turn five.

In breaking news, Brian Barnhart will be race director this weekend at Toronto. According to the Associated Press' Jenna Fryer, Beaux Barfield will not be in Toronto.

Firestone Fast Six qualifying to set the grid for Saturday's race will take place at 2:15 p.m. ET with it airing on NBCSN at 5:30 p.m. ET.