IndyCar: Power leads other title contenders in Friday practice at Sonoma
SONOMA, California – Three of the six remaining contenders for the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series championship were among the fastest drivers in a marathon 3-1/2-hour practice session at Sonoma Raceway on Friday. Defending Verizon IndyCar Series champion Will Power was the fastest around the 2.385-mile, 12-turn Sonoma Raceway with a fast lap of 1:17.4858 for a speed of 110.807 miles per hour. Power’s Chevrolet was just a tick faster than Graham Rahal’s fast time of 1:17.6184 (110.618 mph) in a Honda.
Team Penske driver Juan Pablo Montoya leads Rahal by 34 points entering Sunday’s double-points race, the Go Pro Grand Prix of Sonoma. Power is fourth in points, 61 behind his Team Penske teammate.
“I’m going to go home and study and have a look at whether we can make some changes to go faster in Saturday’s qualifications,” Power said. “It’s a season where things didn’t flow well for me and that is why I’m where we are in the points. I would rate this season as a ‘6’ and considering some of the problems I’ve had I would say that is good.
“We have Red tires yet to go and I don’t think there will be a big different between Blacks and Reds today. I think in qualifying it will be quite hot and the track temperature will be up a lot. The tires will create good racing. They slowly degrade over a run and you see good cars move forward and bad cars move back. I think it will be a good race.”
Rahal admitted his Honda was struggling earlier in practice but his Rahal Letterman Lanigan team was able to make changes to the race car and by the end of practice he was fast.
“We got the car turned around and made some big changes in the garage quickly and it was miles better,” Rahal said. “The car seems good, seems competitive and seems consistent. It would be easier starting up front but who knows what will happen on Sunday. It’s going to be a long race.”
Andretti Autosport driver Ryan Hunter-Reay was third quickest at 1:17.6423 (110.584 mph) in a Honda followed by Chevrolet’s Scott Dixon at 1:17.7937 (110.369 mph). Dixon is a three-time IndyCar Series champion who is third in points, 47 out of the lead.
Honda driver Marco Andretti rounded out the top five at 1:17.8837 (110.243 mph).
Points leader Montoya was ninth at 1:18.0901 (109.950 mph).
A 45-minute practice session is set for 1:45 p.m. ET Saturday, followed by three rounds of knockout qualifying beginning at 6:05 p.m. ET.
“The one thing about this track is it’s so heat dependent and wind direction dependent and that will change the handling completely,” Rahal said. “It’s a good thing to try to turn as many laps as we could and we were able to revert to where we were in the test here several weeks ago.
“The very first run I did a good run but had a lot of issues with electronics. We got a little too conservative and that put us in a bind there but having a big heat cycle on the tires the falloff was huge. I think the tires will fall off quite a bit during this race. It will be interesting to see what happens here.”
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