Reigning champion Josef Newgarden led a Penske 1-2-3 in the first test of the 2018 season at California's Sonoma Raceway.
The 2017 champion topped the timesheets ahead of team-mates Will Power and Simon Pagenaud with a time 2.3 seconds slower last season on a 1.18.1 but was on the slower primary tyres.
"It was a lot of fun last time we were here, but you get so focused forward on what’s next, you’ve got to try to figure out how to do it again,” said Newgarden.
"It’s fun to drive the car again. It moves so much now, you’ve got to get your head around how to drive it, guys really have to be on their toes pretty aggressively this year."
Sebastian Bourdais in the new Dale-Coyne with Vasser-Sullivan entry managed to end the session in fourth place as he continued to get up to speed after his heavy crash during qualifying for last year's Indy 500 with potential team-mate Pietro Fittipaldi slotting in just behind him.
Matheus Leist, Robert Wickens and Jordan King took their first official testing debuts around the 2.3 mile Sonoma Raceway as they prepared for the new season with King being the busiest driver of the day racking up 53 laps.
“This is my first time at the track and my first time to Sonoma, so we’re learning,” added Wickens, who joins fellow Canadian James Hinchcliffe at Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. “The morning wasn’t the smoothest, but we’ll keep chipping away at it and see how we go.
"I’m trying to learn everything in my new INDYCAR career and it’s going to take some adapting and getting used to, but right now it’s great. I love the elevation here. It’s fast, it’s flowing and a completely different track at the top than at the bottom.”
The new universal aerokit also got its debut outing at the test which gave teams a lot of work to do in order to be prepared ahead of the first race in St.Petersberg on March 11.
Speaking about the new aerokit Tony Kanaan added: "New car, a lot of things are different and there are a lot of things to learn. Probably a lot of people making big changes here today. By the time we come back here in September, we’ll have learned a lot of things, but today is definitely the beginning."
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