For the second consecutive race weekend, James Hinchcliffe was the fastest driver in the first practice of the weekend. The Canadian ran a lap of 69.8110 seconds, 0.1795 seconds over 2001 Grand Prix of Long Beach winner Helio Castroneves. Hinchcliffe and Castroneves were the only two drivers to run laps under 70 seconds in first practice.
Honda took four of the top five thanks to Justin Wilson, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Josef Newgarden. Wilson was 0.0080 seconds from breaking into the 69 seconds bracket. Newgarden was the fastest on the time sheet when he caused a red flag with 22 minutes to go in the first practice. He did not make it back out on track but his time remained in the top five, 0.2538 seconds back of Hinchcliffe.
Verizon IndyCar points leader Will Power was sixth ahead of the top rookie in the first practice, Jack Hawksworth. Mike Conway was eighth as he looks for his second career Long Beach victory. Simon Pagenaud was ninth, making it six Hondas in the top ten. Tony Kanaan rounded out the top ten. Kanaan is racing with a scratched eye this weekend.
Marco Andretti was eleventh, ahead of the defending Long Beach race winner Takuma Sato. Three-time Long Beach winner Sébastien Bourdais was thirteenth ahead of 1999 Long Beach winner Juan Pablo Montoya. Oriol Servià rounded out the top fifteen. This is the Spaniards first race of 2014 driving for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He is scheduled to compete from Long Beach through the Indianapolis 500.
Scott Dixon was sixteenth ahead of Sebastián Saavedra. Graham Rahal was eighteenth with rookie Carlos Muñoz nineteenth and Ryan Briscoe rounding out the top twenty. Briscoe's Ganassi teammate and California-native Charlie Kimball was twenty-first with rookies Mikhail Aleshin and Carlos Huertas rounding out the field.
One second covered first to seventeenth with 1.5467 seconds covering the entire field.
IndyCar second practice from Long Beach will take place at 5:00 p.m. ET.
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