Will Power drove his No.1 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet to top spot Friday afternoon for the long IndyCar practice session, leading up to the GoPro GP of Sonoma IndyCar race on Sunday. His fastest lap was 1.17.4858/110.807 mph. The lap wasn’t quite as fast as his pole position lap last year of 1:17.4126/110.919 mph.
The top six drivers were all in the seventeens. While Power was on top for much of the session, there were other leaders before he regained the top spot.
Graham Rahal, second in the current IndyCar standings, ended up second fastest at 1:17.6184/110.618 mph. His fastest lap was very close to the end of the three and a half-hour session.
Third through sixth were Ryan Hunter-Reay/No.28 DHL Andretti Autosport Honda, Scott Dixon/No.9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, Marco Andretti/No.27 Snapple Andretti Autosport Honda, and Simon Pagenaud/No.22 Avaya Team Penske Chevrolet.
Points leader Juan Pablo Montoya/No.2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet was ninth overall.
Oriol Servia, who is driving the Andretti Autosport Honda originally slated for the late Justin Wilson, didn’t have the best of times. His car stopped on the first lap causing a short Red Flag situation. He ended up last of the twenty-five drivers, with only 33 laps – second fewest.
The session was otherwise caution free, with relatively little drama.
Thanks to a cloud cover coming in and the breeze picking up, the sweltering temperatures dropped at least twenty degrees during the session. Add to that the increasing breeze which was consistently inconsistent in its direction.
Another driver change this weekend is the addition of a third car to the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports stable, with Mikhail Aleshin of Russia in No.77 Honda. He had raced last year but ended the season with a crash which sidelined him for a long time. He was seventeenth fastest.
After the session Power and Rahal met with the Media for a Post-Practice Media Opportunity. The party was short and sweet, and crashed by Power’s stand-up comedian brother, Damien, visiting from Australia. It was hard to tell, after the banter began, which one was the real comedian.
Power said “It was an interesting session. We tried the new tire, which didn’t degrade a lot. There’s not going to be much difference between red and black tires. Blacks are quite grippy. With the cloud cover cool down, the lap times Saturday may not be much quicker. Testing with the Indy Light drivers at our Sonoma Raceway Test Day helped. It gave us mileage on a new tire and definitely helped with new aero kits.”
Rahal said “Friday was a good start for us. After the first few laps, we made changes which gave us a good lap. The tires are definitely going to make it a good race. The Sonoma test helped. This place is so dependent on wind direction and tires. Today, the wind direction changed a lot during our session.”
Saturday’s IndyCar schedule includes a 45-minute practice mid-morning, followed by a 75-minute qualifying session mid-afternoon.
Sunday’s race will be telecast live on NBC Sports Network, with a 1-5pm PT broadcast window.
INDYCAR PRACTICE RESULTS
Rank Car Driver Name C/A/E/T Time Speed Diff Gap Best Lap Total Laps

1 1 Power, Will D/C/C/F 01:17.4858 110.807 –.—- –.—- 29 47
2 15 Rahal, Graham D/H/H/F 01:17.6184 110.618 0.1326 0.1326 31 33
3 28 Hunter-Reay, Ryan D/H/H/F 01:17.6423 110.584 0.1565 0.0239 28 33
4 9 Dixon, Scott D/C/C/F 01:17.7937 110.369 0.3079 0.1514 37 40
5 27 Andretti, Marco D/H/H/F 01:17.8827 110.243 0.3969 0.0890 29 33
6 22 Pagenaud, Simon D/C/C/F 01:17.9908 110.090 0.5050 0.1081 44 45
7 3 Castroneves, Helio D/C/C/F 01:18.0033 110.072 0.5175 0.0125 37 59
8 83 Kimball, Charlie D/C/C/F 01:18.0635 109.987 0.5777 0.0602 40 42
9 2 Montoya, Juan Pablo D/C/C/F 01:18.0901 109.950 0.6043 0.0266 33 41
10 11 Bourdais, Sebastien D/C/C/F 01:18.1390 109.881 0.6532 0.0489 39 50
11 26 Munoz, Carlos D/H/H/F 01:18.1529 109.862 0.6671 0.0139 33 34
12 10 Kanaan, Tony D/C/C/F 01:18.1558 109.857 0.6700 0.0029 2 30
13 67 Newgarden, Josef D/C/C/F 01:18.1594 109.852 0.6736 0.0036 30 36
14 5 Briscoe, Ryan D/H/H/F 01:18.1649 109.845 0.6791 0.0055 35 42
15 98 Chaves, Gabby (R) D/H/H/F 01:18.2388 109.741 0.7530 0.0739 44 45
16 8 Saavedra, Sebastian D/C/C/F 01:18.3924 109.526 0.9066 0.1536 36 40
17 77 Aleshin, Mikhail D/H/H/F 01:18.4491 109.447 0.9633 0.0567 32 32
18 41 Hawksworth, Jack D/H/H/F 01:18.4625 109.428 0.9767 0.0134 40 45
19 14 Sato, Takuma D/H/H/F 01:18.6520 109.164 1.1662 0.1895 37 42
20 19 Vautier, Tristan D/H/H/F 01:18.9471 108.756 1.4613 0.2951 18 20
21 7 Jakes, James D/H/H/F 01:19.0050 108.677 1.5192 0.0579 19 37
22 18 Gonzalez, Rodolfo (R) D/H/H/F 01:19.1607 108.463 1.6749 0.1557 53 55
23 20 Filippi, Luca D/C/C/F 01:19.2210 108.380 1.7352 0.0603 38 47
24 4 Coletti, Stefano (R) D/C/C/F 01:19.2787 108.301 1.7929 0.0577 20 23
25 25 Servia, Oriol D/H/H/F 01:19.6981 107.732 2.2123 0.4194 23 33
(R) Rookie
Total Laps: 984
(C)hassis: D=Dallara | (A)erokit: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (E)ngine: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (T)ire: F=Firestone
Information provided by Indy Racing Information System – Copyright INDYCAR 2015