Hinchcliffe fastest, Alonso fifth as Indy practice begins

James Hinchcliffe set the fastest time during the opening day of Indianapolis 500 practice for Andretti Autosport, while Fernando Alonso was the first Chevrolet runner in his return to the event in fifth.

The day was split into three two-hour sessions. The first was for ‘veterans’, the second for rookie orientation and refreshers and the third an amalgamated session with all cars able to go out on track.

The 2016 polesitter James Hinchcliffe lost his ride at what became Arrow McLaren SP last year and entered 2020 jobless, but secured a three-race deal to rejoin old employer Andretti. That run concludes with the Indy 500.

His fastest time came approaching the last hour of the second session of the day, with an average of 224.526mph, heading a train of four Honda-powered machines including three belonging to Andretti.

Hinchcliffe’s team-mate Marco Andretti had a tumultuous day, after becoming stuck in gear while entering the pits in the morning session, which left him at the pit entry, stranded.

However he returned jubilant in the second session, one of the first drivers to set a rapid time and it sent him to the top of the scoreboards before Hinchcliffe later usurped him.

Before that, Scott Dixon had topped the morning session for Chip Ganassi Racing, with a time that stood to be third quickest on the day behind Hinchcliffe and Andretti.

Dixon – winner of the first three races of the IndyCar season – trialled a number of things in the morning including an unusual looking unpainted front wing as part of his regime, the onboard camera showing busy hands at the wheel of his car on his fastest lap.

He was the only driver in the first session to breach the 224mph mark with a 224.047mph lap, having been the first driver into the 220mph efforts much earlier in the session.

Ryan Hunter-Reay was fourth quickest for Andretti, his being one of the later improvements in a second session filled with race runs and practice running in traffic.

Alonso scored fifth with a complicated day that yielded a strong time but fewer laps than some of his rivals.

He had to wait to get proper running on track until the second session of the day as he had to first pass his ‘refresher’ (see below) but once up to speed in the afternoon the Arrow McLaren SP driver looked comfortable.

Behind Alonso, double and reigning IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden set the sixth quickest time of the day, second fastest behind Dixon in the morning session.

It was a subdued day for the Team Penske runners, but Newgarden and last year’s winner Simon Pagenaud both looked extremely comfortable and much quicker on track than their times suggested. Pagenaud ended the day 12th but onboard cameras showed a planted car able to run well in traffic.

Jack Harvey was another late improver in session two, the Andretti-affiliated Meyer Shank Dallara-Honda adding to the Japanese marque’s strong start at the Brickyard.

At a similar time to Harvey’s improvement, Alex Palou delivered the eighth fastest time – making him the fastest rookie of the day.

Having never driven an oval before 2020 and having been taken out of his oval debut at Texas early on, Palou has continued to impress with his methodical approach and rapid pace, adding to that with a very respectable lap of 223.128mph in his Dale Coyne Racing-run car with Honda power.

Rounding out the top 10, Conor Daly – driving for Ed Carpenter Racing and not Carlin as he has in the previous oval rounds of 2020 – was the last to breach 223mph, and three-time winner Helio Castroneves signalled his intent with a fine return having not raced in the series since last year’s 500.

Outside of the top 10, Dixon’s team-mate and ex-Formula 1 driver Marcus Ericsson completed a day-high 129 laps.

JR Hildebrand (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) was the only driver not to get into the 220mph range with a representative lap, but he only completed 29 laps.

The fewest laps were completed by DragonSpeed, which was late to get its entry arranged and is working methodically to make sure Ben Hanley is ready for the race.

Unlike last year, as there are only 33 entries, this year’s class don’t need to worry about being bumped out of qualifying.

Rookie/refresher session

Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet driver Rinus VeeKay topped the rookie/refresher session, which included 11 cars with Alonso and Castroneves among them.

Six of the 11 drivers in that session have done the event before, but are mandated to take part in a refresher course if they haven’t competed on an oval since the Indianapolis 500 the previous year. They are given an extra set of tyres for the privilege.

The rookies are required to complete three phases of orientation which involves lapping within a certain speed range over a set number of laps. It makes it tough to read into the times in this session as some drivers merely complete their assessments and don’t go for true performance runs, leaving that to practice later in the day.

The first to complete the rookie orientation was VeeKay, last year’s Indy Lights runner-up who spent most of the session at the top of the standings being the first driver into 221mph.

Palou took second, ahead of Castroneves and Alonso.

Hear from @alo_oficial after an #Indy500 practice run at @IMS @IndyCar // @ArrowMcLarenSP pic.twitter.com/iNK8LlOf18

— IndyCar on NBC (@IndyCaronNBC) August 12, 2020

Dalton Kellett failed to complete the rookie programme within that session.

In the following practice session his AJ Foyt Enterprises team-mate Tony Kanaan went out in Kellett’s car to test it, and gave the rookie some pointers on lifting in different areas and how much to.

He also suggested a front wing change to alleviate some understeer, which allowed Kellett to complete his rookie orientation.

Practice 1 Results