SONOMA, California -- Ryan Hunter-Reay was fastest in the first of two practices for the Verizon IndyCar Series Friday morning.
The Andretti Autosport driver covered the 12-turn, 2.52-mile road course with a best lap speed of 1:17.5742 at a speed of 110.681.
Practice 1 ✅ @RyanHunterReay led the way with a 1:17.5742 🏎️💨
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) September 14, 2018
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Second- fastest and quickest was current series points leader Scott Dixon (1:17.8268 at 110.322 mph). Dixon comes into this weekend with a 29-point lead over Alexander Rossi and a large 87-point edge over Team Penske teammates Will Power and defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion Josef Newgarden.
Speaking of Power, he was third-fastest (1:17.8818/110.244), followed by teammate Simon Pagenaud (1:17.9586/110.135) and another Andretti Autosport driver, Marco Andretti (1:18.0878/109.953).
Sixth through 10th were Ed Jones (1:18.1385/109.882), Graham Rahal (1:18.1665/109.842), championship contender Alexander Rossi (1:18.2738/109.692 ), Zach Veach (1:18.3541/109.579) and Sebastien Bourdais (1:18.3709/109.556).
Of note, Newgarden did not even take to the track during the entire practice as the team worked on what reportedly was a possible fuel pressure issue in his race car.
On top of that, Newgarden is battling what he called food poisoning, but hopes to be much better by Saturday.
There were three incidents of note during the 45-minute session:
* About 15 minutes in, championship contender Alexander Rossi spun in Turn 5, but was able to continue on.
* With about 20 minutes left in the session, James Hinchcliffe spun in Turn 2, winding up in the tire wall. Damage was minimal, he brought his car into the pits, repairs were made and he was back on-track for the final 8 minutes.
Ouch. @Hinchtown into the wall.
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* Hinchcliffe spun again in Turn 7 (the hairpin) as time expired in the session.
There was almost an incident when Dixon almost ran into Spencer Pigot of Ed Carpenter Racing late in the session, as well.
Here’s the full practice grid:
A little 👋 from @scottdixon9 👀
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Friday’s second practice is slated to start at 3 pm PT/6 pm ET.
One race. One champion. Who will it be?
— INDYCAR on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) September 14, 2018
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