Defending IndyCar champion Ryan Hunter-Reay was fastest in first practice, setting a time of 1:18.6814 seconds. Directly behind him was championship points leader Helio Castroneves who was 0.0162 seconds back. Dario Franchitti was the fastest Honda in third just 0.1310 seconds off Hunter-Reay. Marco Andretti was fourth fastest. He picked up his first career IndyCar win at Sonoma in 2006. Defending race winner at Sonoma Ryan Briscoe was fifth quick. He has missed the last two races with a broken wrist.
Justin Wilson was sixth just ahead of Sébastien Bourdais. EJ Viso was eighth fastest ahead of JR Hildebrand who makes his first appearance in an IndyCar since Indianapolis this May. James Hinchcliffe rounded out the top ten just 0.5154 seconds back of his teammate. Josef Newgarden was eleventh fastest ahead of Will Power. Power has the most IndyCar wins at Sonoma with two. Graham Rahal was thirteenth just ahead of his teammate James Jakes in fourteenth. The two Rahal Letterman Lanigan cars were only 0.0025 seconds apart. Scott Dixon was fifteenth and spun on his final lap of practice. He was able to keep the car going and drive back to the pit lane.
Rookie Tristan Vautier was sixteenth ahead of Sebastián Saavedra and Simona de Silvestro. The top eighteen were covered by 0.9200 seconds. James Davison was nineteenth ahead of four race winners in 2013, Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan, Long Beach winner Takuma Sato, Belle Isle Sunday race winner Simon Pagenaud and the most recent winner at Mid-Ohio Charlie Kimball. Ed Carpenter was twenty-fourth with German debutant Lucas Luhr rounding out the field, 2.2522 seconds back.
IndyCar second practice will take place later this afternoon at 5:00 p.m. ET.
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