Power leads opening IndyCar practice at Long Beach

Will Power set the pace in Friday’s opening IndyCar Series practice session on the streets of Long Beach.

Power’s best of 1m07.6053s in the No. 26 Andretti Global Honda was enough to edge out former Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 Chevrolet by 0.1861s.

Defending race winner Kyle Kirkwood reinforced Andretti's pace by going third fastest in the No. 27 Honda, 0.1917s behind McLaughlin, leaving Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou and Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong to complete the top five.

“There’s still a lot to play out, but we’ve seen over the years that the Andretti cars are good here,” Power said. “I think the one-lap qualifying will be very interesting – it’s hard to know whether it will suit us or not, but on the reds the car is very good. There are still things to improve, so… looking good.”

RELATED:

• Fast early, but then more adversity for McLaughlin
• Power relishing normality after pace-setting Long Beach session
• Short start to Long Beach weekend for Schumacher

McLaughlin’s pace came at the expense of the opportunity to get a proper read on the softer-compound tires; his session coming to an unwelcome end when he lost control in Turn 9 and smacked the wall with the left rear.

That brought out the last of the session’s three red flags, the most consequential of which came in the opening minutes when Mick Schumacher’s No.47 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda came to a stop at Turn 3 with a mechanical issue. It was not restarted at Honda’s direction, leaving Schumacher with Saturday’s second practice session as his sole opportunity to learn the track ahead of qualifying. He will have a fresh engine for tomorrow's session.

The other red flag was a brief stoppage to clear debris.

UP NEXT: Practice 2, Saturday, 10:30am PT

RESULTS