Graham Rahal was pretty dejected when his car wrecked during Saturday’s practice for today’s 42nd Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, suffering left front and left rear damage.
But after overnight repairs, Rahal’s Honda showed little worse for the wear, as he was fastest in Sunday morning’s final practice session on the nearly two-mile road course.
Rahal led all 21 cars in the warmup with a best speed of 105.222 and a top time of 1:07.3319.
.@GrahamRahal pulls into his pit stall after being quickest in morning warm-up. #IndyCar #TGPLB pic.twitter.com/BBVEU8QCPF
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) April 17, 2016
.@GrahamRahal chats with team engineers after being quickest this morning. He'll start 17th in today's #TGPLB. pic.twitter.com/59PuQK6b3d
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) April 17, 2016
However, Rahal will have a long way to get back to the front in today’s race, as he starts from the 17th position.
The rest of the top five in Sunday’s practice were polesitter Helio Castroneves (104.866 mph at 1:07.5605), Juan Pablo Montoya (104.783 mph at 1:07.6142), James Hinchcliffe (104.739 mph at 1:07.6426) and Scott Dixon (104.670 mph at 1:07.6871).
But several drivers struggled to get speed. Will Power was second-to-last on the speed chart with a speed of 103.656 mph at 1:08.3493, and Marco Andretti was two spots ahead of Power at 103.756 mph at 1:08.2832.
Sixth through 10th were Sebastien Bourdais (104.652 mph at 1:07.6984), Simon Pagenaud (104.632 at 1:07.7117), Ryan Hunter-Reay (104.537 at 1:07.7734), Mikhail Aleshin (104.375 at 1:07.8785) and Alexander Rossi (104.337).
The rest of the drivers, from 11th through 21st, were Takuma Sato (104.235 at 1:07.9693), Max Chilton (104.210 at 1:07.9861), Tony Kanaan (104.131 at 1:08.0373), Charlie Kimball (104.114 at 1:08.0488), Conor Daly (104.110 at 1:08.0508), Josef Newgarden (104.077 at 1:08.0725), Jack Hawksworth (104.043 at 1:08.0952), Marco Andretti (104.010 at 1:08.1167), Carlos Munoz (103.756 at 1:08.2832), Will Power (103.656 at 1:08.3493) and Luca Filippi (102.623 at 1:09.0371).
There were a few minor mishaps in the 30-minute session – primarily single car, no-damage spins -- that involved Hinchcliffe, Charlie Kimball and Dixon on the final lap.
Luca Filippi also suffered a wheel fire when carbon on the outside of the rotor lit up. The fire was quickly extinguished and Filippi was back on the track shortly afterward.
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