INDYCAR: Pagenaud leads Penske 1-2-3 in Toronto

The new configuration of parts of the Exhibition Place street circuit bit some drivers during the second practice for the Honda Indy Toronto. Firestone reported an ambient temperature of 78 degrees with a track temperature of 103 at the start of the session.

Simon Pagenaud led a Penske 1-2-3 in the afternoon practice, running a lap of 1m,1.7081s (104.194 mph) on his final lap before the checkered flag, followed by Helio Castroneves, Will Power and Scott Dixon.

"I like [the track] better. So I'm happy," Pagenaud said. "I do like it better. I know it's not the case for everybody, but I do, so. I think it's one of these years where you're having luck all the time. The PPG Chevrolet was fast, good. We made some adjustments for Practice 2. It actually went better than we expected. We're on a good pace this weekend. Certainly I think we're pretty set with the race car, now we need to make some adjustments for qualifying. But we're pretty close. It's great when you're having one of these weekends and everything flows really well."

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Chevrolet took six of the top seven spots. Hometown favorite James Hinchcliffe was the fastest Honda in fifth, runnning a lap of 1m,2.1867s. Sebastien Bourdais, a two-time winner here, was sixth fastest.

"We had some issues with the car this morning but we were able to sort it out," said Hinchcliffe, who missed last year's race as he recovered from the injuries he suffered during the month of May. "It's tough because the conditions out there are bumpy and there are so many surface changes. I bet even the fastest guy out there is saying how bad his car feels."

Juan Pablo Montoya, whose 1m,2.8459s lap was third fastest behind Mikhail Aleshin and Takuma Sato in the early running, shot across the track and made heavy right-side contact with the wall in Turn 11, bringing out the red flag. He got out from the car unaided.

"I went in, did a big arc then when I turned in it got a little bit out of shape, the rear, and it was enough just to clip the inside wall and throw me straight to the outside [wall]," Montoya told IMS Radio. "When it's narrow like that, when you make a mistake there's no way to recover, but that's a street course. That's part of what a street course is."

"I've done this long enough, it's what it is. Sometimes you have good years. This year I think the speed has been there, it's just been a tough year. Everything that can go wrong goes wrong and I make a couple mistakes, it doesn't help."

Aleshin brought out a brief second red with 21 minutes to go when he spun at the exit of Turn 1. He backed up and managed to get the car going again, escaping major damage.

The third red flag came about seven minutes later when Charlie Kimball hit the outside wall exiting Turn 11. The hit wasn't as hard as Montoya's but spread carbon fiber debris in the area around pit lane exit.

A final practice will be held at 9:45 a.m. ET Saturday, with qualifying set for 1:30 p.m. ET.

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