Sebastien Bourdais left them spinning behind him as he tops the first practice session Friday for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
A red flag finished the session, as Will Power lost control at the top of the crest and sat sideways in a blind corner. This caused the field to bunch up behind him, causing damage for a few entries including significant wing damage to the front of Charlie Kimball’s Carlin Chevrolet.
Bourdais led the field with a time of 1:05.5784 on his final flying lap, 0.3383 ahead of Josef Newgarden in P2. Bad news for Newgarden, and the whole field, as ‘Mr. Mid-Ohio’ Scott Dixon sat P3 in the first session.
Dixon will be making his 300th career IndyCar start this weekend, at a track at which he has won five times. He holds the top spot in the championship standings by 62 points over defending series champion Newgarden.
Takuma Sato and Spencer Pigot appeared to be continuing their quick pace of late, following up in P4 and P5 respectively. Championship contenders and Andretti Autosport teammates Ryan Hunter-Reay and Alexander Rossi had more reserved opening sessions, placing P7 and P10.
Robert Wickens’ first IndyCar experience in Mid-Ohio finished abruptly, running off course after feeling a vibration in the rear of the car and bringing his first session to a halt.
Wicken’s wasn’t the only rookie to face struggles at Mid-Ohio. Leading the session early on, Matheus Leist lost control and spun to bring out the red flag. Zach Veach, in his homecoming race, saw similar struggles to those he faced at Road America and spun. Veach continued on and avoided a red flag.
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