Detroit IndyCar: Simon Pagenaud ends Friday practice on top
Simon Pagenaud topped the times in the second of Friday's practice sessions for this weekend's IndyCar races on Belle Isle in Detroit
The Schmidt driver's 1m17.6502s moved him to the top just a third of the way into the 45-minute session, but his time remained unbeaten.
Early session leaders Mike Conway and Helio Castroneves both came close, falling 0.064s and 0.066s short respectively.
Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay rounded out the top five, which was something of a surprise considering that neither had what they would consider to be an ideal session.
Power's moment came when he lost the tail of his Penske Dallara-Chevrolet and slapped the wall with his left-rear, forcing a visit to the pits for repairs 20 minutes before the chequered flag.
Meanwhile Hunter-Reay, who led the morning session, suffered what appeared to be a minor brake fire early on, and then a rather more series problem when his car cut out completely on the circuit and refused to be restarted.
That brought out the third of the day's three red flags, but fortunately for the Andretti driver the drama struck when there was less than two minutes remaining.
The other red flags were caused by Sebastian Saavedra (harmless trip up into escape road) and Justin Wilson (spin into wall, visit to pits for new nose), although the challenges presented by the track's bumpy surface meant that there could easily have been others.
Pagenaud was able to get away with a huge slide, and Charlie Kimball was similarly fortunate to catch a wayward moment without hitting the concrete barriers.
Follow both the Detroit IndyCar races and qualifying sessions as they happen with AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live this weekend. Races start 8.30pm UK time each night
Pos Driver Team/Engine Time Gap 1. Simon Pagenaud Schmidt/Honda 1m17.6502s 2. Mike Conway Carpenter/Chevy 1m17.7149s +0.0647s 3. Helio Castroneves Penske/Chevy 1m17.7171s +0.0669s 4. Will Power Penske/Chevy 1m17.8966s +0.2464s 5. Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti/Honda 1m18.1674s +0.5172s 6. Scott Dixon Gansssi/Chevy 1m18.2490s +0.5988s 7. Takuma Sato Foyt/Honda 1m18.3006s +0.6504s 8. James Hinchcliffe Andretti/Honda 1m18.3223s +0.6721s 9. Ryan Briscoe Ganassi/Chevy 1m18.4500s +0.7998s 10. Graham Rahal Rahal/Honda 1m18.6137s +0.9635s 11. Tony Kanaan Ganassi/Chevy 1m18.6294s +0.9792s 12. Carlos Munoz Andretti/Honda 1m18.6299s +0.9797s 13. Sebastian Saavedra KV/Chevy 1m18.6468s +0.9966s 14. Josef Newgarden Fisher/Honda 1m18.7344s +1.0842s 15. Marco Andretti Andretti/Honda 1m19.0057s +1.3555s 16. Justin Wilson Coyne/Honda 1m19.0925s +1.4423s 17. Jack Hawksworth Herta/Honda 1m19.1898s +1.5396s 18. Carlos Huertas Coyne/Honda 1m19.3857s +1.7355s 19. Juan Pablo Montoya Penske/Chevy 1m19.5345s +1.8843s 20. Charlie Kimball Ganassi/Chevy 1m19.5957s +1.9455s 21. Sebastien Bourdais KV/Chevy 1m19.6048s +1.9546s 22. Mikhail Aleshin Schmidt/Honda 1m19.6560s +2.0058s All drivers use Dallara chassis
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