On Friday afternoon, 27 drivers from the NTT IndyCar Series took to Portland International Raceway for the opening practice session of the weekend.
Ideal track conditions greeted the field, and times were quicker than last year on account of the cool air and warm track.
Lapping the fastest was Christian Lundgaard, who lapped his #45 RLL Honda around the circuit in just 58.1776 seconds.
His fast time was set on the softer red-walled tire, as was every single driver. Those results seem to show that there is a real advantage to the alternate tire this weekend.
Kyle Kirkwood was the second fastest driver of the day, lapping 0.147 seconds slower than Lundgaard at the head of the field despite running the fewest laps of anyone.
The current points leader Alex Palou set the third fastest time, with Honda-powered entries filling all three of the top positions.
The practice run was interrupted a few times due to drivers needing assistance on the side of the 1.96-mile course.
The first red flag was brought out by Felix Rosenqvist running wide in the final corner and just barely touching the tire barriers.
Santino Ferrucci and Ryan Hunter-Reay each spun later on in the session, and also needed assistance from the AMR safety crew to get going again.
All three drivers were assessed a five-minute penalty that shortened the amount of time they had to dial in their setups.
A few other drivers were perilously close to getting into trouble themselves, as it seemed like a majority of the field struggled to get a handle on the Firestone tires.
Team Penske, on the other hand, did not look as strong as it did last year. Josef Newgarden was the fastest of the trio, and was only able to manage the 10th best time near the end of the session.
Scott McLaughlin finished in 16th, well off the pace of his race-winning performance last season. Will Power was just behind in 17th on the timesheets.
There were a handful of new drivers taking part in the session, including Juri Vips who completed his first-ever timed session in the American series.
Vips was 15th fastest in the #30 RLL entry, showing that even nearly a year away from competitive racing has not slowed him down very much.
Tom Blomqvist also made a return in the #60, but was the slowest driver of the day with a 59.8418 time his best of the afternoon.
The IMSA driver that recently landed a full time ride with MSR next season showed remarkable improvement throughout the weekend during his only other IndyCar start, so will look to repeat that feat over the next two days.
Drivers have one more practice session scheduled for 9:00 AM Pacific Time, followed by a knockout qualifying run that afternoon.
