<< Return to the news list

Hinchcliffe tops disrupted final practice

Published on 06 Apr 2019 18:36
0
By: Fergal Walsh

James Hinchliffe has topped the final practice session of the weekend in Barber, starting where he left off on Friday - on top of the timesheets.

The Canadian's best lap was a 1:08.735, which was set right at the end of the session, as drivers managed one final lap following a red due to an off from Graham Rahal.

Rahal wasn't the only driver that found trouble, as Marcus Ericsson, Hinchcliffe's teammate, hit the barrier at Turn 2 after he drifted out wide. Moments before Ericsson's off, Ryan Hunter-Reay ventured off at the same corner, taking the grass path back onto the race track.

Sebastien Bourdais was second ahead of Scott Dixon in third, as the reigning champion sets his eyes on a strong qualifying as he aims to take his first win at the Alabama circuit.

Colton Herta was fourth, leading Takuma Sato, who was one of many drivers to find the grass at some point during the session.

Spencer Pigot was sixth in the ECR car, heading Barber's 2016 race winner Simon Pagenaud.

As he looks to continue his strong start to IndyCar, Felix Rosenqvist was eighth. Max Chilton was ninth, while Alexander Rossi rounded out the top ten as the leading Andretti car.

The other two Penske's of Will Power and Josef Newgarden were down in 15th and 17th respectively, and will both be looking for a leap in pace for qualifying as they boast five Barber wins between them.

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap
1.	James Hinchcliffe	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1:08.7351	-
2.	Sebastien Bourdais	Dale Coyne Racing	1:09.0351	+0.3000
3.	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:09.2334	+0.4983
4.	Colton Herta	Harding Racing	1:09.2444	+0.5093
5.	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:09.2692	+0.5341
6.	Spencer Pigot	Ed Carpenter Racing	1:09.2784	+0.5433
7.	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	1:09.2837	+0.5486
8.	Felix Rosenqvist	Chip Ganassi Racing	1:09.2884	+0.5533
9.	Max Chilton	Carlin	1:09.3113	+0.5762
10.	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	1:09.3481	+0.6130
11.	Patricio O'Ward	Carlin	1:09.4272	+0.6921
12.	Ed Jones	Ed Carpenter Racing	1:09.4540	+0.7189
13.	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	1:09.4794	+0.7443
14.	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	1:09.5282	+0.7931
15.	Will Power	Team Penske	1:09.5959	+0.8608
16.	Matheus Leist	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1:09.6287	+0.8936
17.	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	1:09.7409	+1.0058
18.	Tony Kanaan	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	1:09.8630	+1.1279
19.	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	1:09.9723	+1.2372
20.	Marco Andretti	Andretti Autosport	1:10.0384	+1.3033
21.	Marcus Ericsson	Schmidt Peterson Motorsports	1:10.1552	+1.4201
22.	Santino Ferrucci	Dale Coyne Racing	1:10.5587	+1.8236
23.	Ben Hanley	DragonSpeed	1:10.9123	+2.1772
24.	Zach Veach	Andretti Autosport	1:11.0864	+2.3513