Carpenter quickest in opening Phoenix practice as Sato, Hinchcliffe crash hard

Ed Carpenter laid down the early pace for his eponymous team as IndyCar enjoyed its first official race weekend session at Phoenix International Raceway in 11 years on Friday afternoon.

This weekend's race is the first in Phoenix since 2005, with Carpenter being just one of four drivers to have previously raced at the historic short oval.

This experience shone through as Carpenter led the way in opening practice, heading up an Ed Carpenter Racing one-two ahead of teammate Josef Newgarden in a disjointed session.

Running was interrupted early on by a sizeable crash for A. J. Foyt Enterprises driver Takuma Sato at Turn 1 that saw him slam into the wall rear-first. Thankfully, he walked away unharmed.

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A second full course yellow was thrown when James Hinchcliffe also crashed out after 30 minutes of the session. Like Sato, he was able to get out of his car unaided, although it did leave the Schmidt Peterson Motorsports crew with plenty of work to do ahead of qualifying.

Amid the stoppages and delays for debris, Carpenter managed to shoot to the top of the pack late on with a lap of 19.1227 seconds, averaging 192.4 mph over his lap. Newgarden came in tow, finishing second despite only getting a clean run at the very end of the session.

Helio Castroneves finished as the leading Penske driver in third place ahead of Ganassi's Tony Kanaan, while Simon Pagenaud and Charlie Kimball followed their respective teammates in fifth and sixth position.

Will Power enjoyed his first official IndyCar weekend session outing since qualifying in St. Petersburg, finishing seventh ahead of defending champion Scott Dixon. Juan Pablo Montoya ended FP1 in ninth place, while rookie Max Chilton rounded out the top 10.