On his final lap of the session, Simon Pagenaud claimed the top spot in this morning’s warmup for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park (2 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network). Pagenaud, who starts 10th today and made his IZOD IndyCar Series debut one year ago at this track, threw down a lap of 71.2414 seconds in his No. 77 HP-Schmidt/Hamilton Motorsports Honda.
Following the Frenchman were Will Power, Takuma Sato, pole sitter Helio Castroneves and Graham Rahal, who has promised to kiss “The Lady of the Lake” — Barber’s latest addition to the array of unique sculptures around its 2.4-mile road course — if he wins this afternoon.
Unfortunately, Lotus’ engine woes continued this morning as Sebastien Bourdais’ engine let go according to Dragon Racing team owner Jay Penske on the IMS Radio Network/INDYCAR.com broadcast. This may wind up being the third engine change for Lotus this week, as Oriol Servia had to switch following Friday’s practice and Alex Tagliani needed a new motor following last weekend’s event in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Both Servia and Tagliani are effectively starting from the back of the field today due to the 10-spot penalty for unapproved engine changes. Bourdais is supposed to start 17th today.
Here are the times from this morning:
Rank | Car | Driver | Engine | Diff. | BL | LL | Gap | TL | BL# | |
1 | Simon Pagenaud | 0 | 1:11.2414 | 1:11.2414 | 0 | 15 | 15 | |||
2 | Will Power | 0.3368 | 1:11.5782 | 1:13.2445 | 0.3368 | 18 | 4 | |||
3 | Takuma Sato | 0.4513 | 1:11.6927 | 1:14.2632 | 0.1145 | 16 | 14 | |||
4 | Helio Castroneves | 0.6909 | 1:11.9323 | 1:13.4263 | 0.2396 | 17 | 11 | |||
5 | Graham Rahal | 0.7961 | 1:12.0375 | 1:13.3081 | 0.1052 | 18 | 12 | |||
6 | Scott Dixon | 0.8055 | 1:12.0469 | 1:13.8406 | 0.0094 | 13 | 9 | |||
7 | JR Hildebrand | 0.8752 | 1:12.1166 | 1:13.0516 | 0.0697 | 18 | 17 | |||
8 | Mike Conway | 0.9265 | 1:12.1679 | 1:13.0411 | 0.0513 | 18 | 12 | |||
9 | Marco Andretti | 1.0462 | 1:12.2876 | 1:13.3542 | 0.1197 | 15 | 5 | |||
10 | Tony Kanaan | 1.0711 | 1:12.3125 | 1:13.5095 | 0.0249 | 15 | 6 | |||
11 | Rubens Barrichello | 1.1088 | 1:12.3502 | 1:13.2218 | 0.0377 | 18 | 15 | |||
12 | Ryan Briscoe | 1.2912 | 1:12.5326 | 1:14.0683 | 0.1824 | 18 | 10 | |||
13 | James Hinchcliffe | 1.3568 | 1:12.5982 | 1:26.1305 | 0.0656 | 16 | 4 | |||
14 | Dario Franchitti | 1.4397 | 1:12.6811 | 1:12.8760 | 0.0829 | 13 | 12 | |||
15 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | 1.4771 | 1:12.7185 | 1:14.1105 | 0.0374 | 14 | 8 | |||
16 | James Jakes | 1.4777 | 1:12.7191 | 1:13.8061 | 0.0006 | 15 | 7 | |||
17 | Josef Newgarden | 1.5406 | 1:12.7820 | 1:12.7820 | 0.0629 | 18 | 18 | |||
18 | Simona de Silvestro | 1.8446 | 1:13.0860 | 1:13.8829 | 0.3040 | 16 | 6 | |||
19 | Alex Tagliani | 1.8586 | 1:13.1000 | 1:14.1128 | 0.0140 | 17 | 10 | |||
20 | Charlie Kimball | 1.9349 | 1:13.1763 | 1:13.2981 | 0.0763 | 14 | 11 | |||
21 | Justin Wilson | 1.9799 | 1:13.2213 | 1:13.6109 | 0.0450 | 13 | 9 | |||
22 | Oriol Servia | 2.2357 | 1:13.4771 | 1:14.0763 | 0.2558 | 14 | 12 | |||
23 | EJ Viso | 2.3927 | 1:13.6341 | 1:14.3525 | 0.1570 | 17 | 5 | |||
24 | Ed Carpenter | 3.9004 | 1:15.1418 | 1:15.3278 | 1.5077 | 10 | 5 | |||
25 | Katherine Legge | 4.2719 | 1:15.5133 | 1:18.5973 | 0.3715 | 14 | 10 | |||
26 | Sebastien Bourdais | 5:26.7342 | 6:37.9756 | 6:37.9756 | 5:22.4623 | 2 | 2 |