Power leads Penske one-two on first day of Indy 500 practice

Will Power edged fellow Team Penske driver Simon Pagenaud to the fastest lap on the first day of practice for the 2019 Indianapolis 500.

Power’s best of 39.1738s (229.745mph, 369.739km/h) in the #12 Chevrolet came with the assistance of a tow as he and the Frenchman worked together on Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Pagenaud ended up only 0.042mph (0.068km/h) slower in the #22 Chevrolet, while Ed Carpenter was third fastest by virtue of the 39.3610s (228.653mph, 367.981km/h) which he set in the Oval Veterans session that kicked off the day’s proceedings.

Helio Castroneves (#3 Chevrolet) similarly ended up fourth in the Indianapolis-only Team Penske entry, as did Colton Herta (Harding Steinbrenner Racing) in the first of the Honda-powered cars.

Herta was also responsible for the only yellow flag not necessitated by debris when he looped Car #88 while exiting the pits late in the afternoon.

“I think that was him pushing to leave pit lane, to essentially try and get into traffic as quickly as he could.”

Follow along on @NBCSportsGold: https://t.co/lSFFyezUq4#ThisIsMay // #Indy500 pic.twitter.com/oMjPsulABF

— NTT IndyCar Series (@IndyCar) May 14, 2019

Ed Jones was 10th fastest but best in terms of non-towed laps at an average speed of 224.542mph (361.365km/h) in the #63 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.

Scott Dixon (#9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) was 13th but did record the highest figure through the speed trap at 236.128mph (380.011km/h).

Fernando Alonso (#66 McLaren Racing Chevrolet) was 32nd having completed only one lap in the afternoon session, and James Davison (#33 Dale Coyne Racing w/ Byrd-Hollinger-Belardi Honda) 36th.

Both Alonso and Davison came after three of the four Schmidt Peterson Hondas which James Hinchcliffe drove during the day.

Patricio O’Ward will start Day 2 early in order to complete his rookie orientation after encountering a gearbox problem in the #31 Carlin Chevrolet.

Results: Practice: Day 1

Pos	Num	Driver	C/E/T	Time	Avg speed		Laps
					mph	km/h
1	12	Will Power	D/C/F	0:39.1738	229.745	369.739	68
2	22	Simon Pagenaud	D/C/F	0:39.1810	229.703	369.671	81
3	20	Ed Carpenter	D/C/F	0:39.3610	228.653	367.981	105
4	3	Helio Castroneves	D/C/F	0:39.3974	228.441	367.640	67
5	88	Colton Herta (R)	D/H/F	0:39.4246	228.284	367.387	74
6	18	Sebastien Bourdais	D/H/F	0:39.4318	228.242	367.320	110
7	26	Zach Veach	D/H/F	0:39.4506	228.133	367.144	109
8	27	Alexander Rossi	D/H/F	0:39.4631	228.061	367.029	92
9	98	Marco Andretti	D/H/F	0:39.4736	228.000	366.930	81
10	63	Ed Jones	D/C/F	0:39.4795	227.966	366.876	105
11	21	Spencer Pigot	D/C/F	0:39.5021	227.836	366.666	128
12	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	D/H/F	0:39.5358	227.642	366.354	80
13	9	Scott Dixon	D/H/F	0:39.5730	227.428	366.010	97
14	30	Takuma Sato	D/H/F	0:39.6042	227.249	365.722	90
15	48	JR Hildebrand	D/C/F	0:39.6125	227.201	365.645	113
16	19	Santino Ferrucci (R)	D/H/F	0:39.6330	227.083	365.455	95
17	2	Josef Newgarden	D/C/F	0:39.6474	227.001	365.323	60
18	10	Felix Rosenqvist (R)	D/H/F	0:39.6774	226.829	365.046	81
19	25	Conor Daly	D/H/F	0:39.6963	226.721	364.872	99
20	15	Graham Rahal	D/H/F	0:39.7354	226.498	364.513	90
21	32	Kyle Kaiser (R)	D/C/F	0:39.7509	226.410	364.372	10
22	23	Charlie Kimball	D/C/F	0:39.8507	225.843	363.459	69
23	7	James Hinchcliffe	D/H/F	0:39.9117	225.498	362.904	5
24	14	Tony Kanaan	D/C/F	0:39.9161	225.473	362.864	66
25	5	James Hinchcliffe	D/H/F	0:39.9582	225.235	362.481	99
26	60	Jack Harvey	D/H/F	0:39.9641	225.202	362.427	85
27	59	Max Chilton	D/C/F	0:40.0274	224.846	361.855	76
28	77	James Hinchcliffe	D/H/F	0:40.0369	224.793	361.769	6
29	7	Marcus Ericsson (R)	D/H/F	0:40.0532	224.701	361.621	83
30	24	Sage Karam	D/C/F	0:40.0686	224.615	361.483	32
31	4	Matheus Leist	D/C/F	0:40.1150	224.355	361.064	85
32	66	Fernando Alonso	D/C/F	0:40.1496	224.162	360.754	50
33	42	Jordan King (R)	D/H/F	0:40.1834	223.973	360.450	42
34	39	Pippa Mann	D/C/F	0:40.1948	223.910	360.348	25
35	31	Max Chilton	D/C/F	0:40.2646	223.521	359.722	13
36	33	James Davison	D/H/F	0:40.2660	223.514	359.711	30
37	77	Oriol Servia	D/H/F	0:40.3063	223.290	359.350	60
38	81	Ben Hanley (R)	D/C/F	0:40.6235	221.547	356.545	14
39	60	James Hinchcliffe	D/H/F	0:40.8157	220.503	354.865	5

(C)hassis: D=Dallara | (E)ngine: C=Chevy, H=Honda | (T)yre: F=Firestone