IndyCar: Montoya tops first Toronto practice

Juan Pablo Montoya led a Team Penske 1-2 in a slightly shortened opening practice session for this weekend's IndyCar race in Toronto.

Penske had one of its cars at the top of the screens for the entire session, but Montoya made the position his own with a best lap of 1m00.6343s. Simon Pagenaud, who had set the pace during the opening minutes, finished up second-fastest at 1m00.7922s.

Josef Newgarden completed the top three, while Graham Rahal once again led the way for Honda, ending the morning as the Japanese manufacturer's only representative in the top 10.

But although the results looked a little lopsided – first in favor of Penske, and more broadly in favor of Chevrolet – the field was actually fairly tight. The top nine were covered by just over 0.4s, and the top 18 were within one second of Montoya's time.

Elsewhere, Tristan Vautier and Rodolfo Gonzalez, who received late call-ups to drive the two Dale Coyne Racing entries, finished up in P22 and P23, respectively.

The session ran without incident until the last couple of minutes, when Scott Dixon came to a stop mid-way around the circuit.

That prompted a red flag to allow for the stranded Ganassi car to be retrieved, and with just 90 seconds left on the clock, the decision was made to wave the checkered flag.

Click here for full results.

Originally on AUTOSPORT.com