In no surprise whatsoever, Will Power led this morning’s initial practice session for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, hitting the top of the charts on just his fourth lap of the session. His time of 71.2886 seconds was two-tenths quicker than the second-place lap that belonged to Team Penske teammate Helio Castroneves.
Toward the tail end of the session, Takuma Sato and Rubens Barrichello both broke into the Top 5 and wound up third and fifth on the charts respectively. The two sandwiched promising rookie Josef Newgarden, who continues to come strong so far.
The morning ended badly for Justin Wilson, who suffered an engine fire during the session on his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda. The team is now putting in a new engine and in an interview with the IMS Radio Network, Wilson was unsure of if the team could be back out for the afternoon session
Unfortunately, I won’t be around this afternoon for the second practice session. But here are the times for the first session that just concluded minutes ago:
| Rank | Car | Driver | Engine | Diff. | BL | LL | Gap | TL | BL# | |
| 1 |  |
Will Power |  |
0 | 1:11.2886 | 1:14.3525 | 0 | 16 | 5 | |
| 2 |  |
Helio Castroneves | |
0.2124 | 1:11.5010 | 1:13.5427 | 0.2124 | 18 | 6 | |
| 3 |  |
Takuma Sato |  |
0.2722 | 1:11.5608 | 1:11.6738 | 0.0598 | 21 | 20 | |
| 4 |  |
Josef Newgarden | |
0.2998 | 1:11.5884 | 1:15.4036 | 0.0276 | 19 | 3 | |
| 5 |  |
Rubens Barrichello | |
0.3142 | 1:11.6028 | 1:13.8907 | 0.0144 | 25 | 21 | |
| 6 |  |
Marco Andretti | |
0.3377 | 1:11.6263 | 1:11.6263 | 0.0235 | 17 | 17 | |
| 7 |  |
Tony Kanaan | |
0.3914 | 1:11.6800 | 1:49.1206 | 0.0537 | 19 | 18 | |
| 8 |  |
Simon Pagenaud | |
0.4129 | 1:11.7015 | 1:11.7015 | 0.0215 | 15 | 15 | |
| 9 |  |
Dario Franchitti | |
0.4529 | 1:11.7415 | 1:11.7415 | 0.0400 | 16 | 16 | |
| 10 |  |
Graham Rahal | |
0.6643 | 1:11.9529 | 1:12.6386 | 0.2114 | 20 | 19 | |
| 11 |  |
James Hinchcliffe | |
0.7434 | 1:12.0320 | 1:15.4788 | 0.0791 | 14 | 5 | |
| 12 |  |
JR Hildebrand | |
0.7678 | 1:12.0564 | 1:12.3616 | 0.0244 | 18 | 5 | |
| 13 |  |
Scott Dixon | |
0.7940 | 1:12.0826 | 1:14.3553 | 0.0262 | 13 | 7 | |
| 14 |  |
Mike Conway | |
0.9048 | 1:12.1934 | 1:14.7272 | 0.1108 | 17 | 5 | |
| 15 |  |
Ryan Briscoe | |
0.9265 | 1:12.2151 | 1:14.3169 | 0.0217 | 13 | 4 | |
| 16 |  |
Sebastien Bourdais |  |
1.1932 | 1:12.4818 | 1:12.4818 | 0.2667 | 23 | 23 | |
| 17 |  |
James Jakes | |
1.2132 | 1:12.5018 | 1:14.8381 | 0.0200 | 23 | 5 | |
| 18 |  |
EJ Viso | |
1.2156 | 1:12.5042 | 1:14.8759 | 0.0024 | 12 | 3 | |
| 19 |  |
Ryan Hunter-Reay | |
1.3351 | 1:12.6237 | 1:13.9365 | 0.1195 | 12 | 2 | |
| 20 |  |
Simona de Silvestro | |
1.4502 | 1:12.7388 | 1:13.6790 | 0.1151 | 24 | 18 | |
| 21 |  |
Charlie Kimball | |
1.8011 | 1:13.0897 | 1:13.5488 | 0.3509 | 13 | 9 | |
| 22 |  |
Alex Tagliani | |
2.1860 | 1:13.4746 | 1:15.0052 | 0.3849 | 16 | 15 | |
| 23 |  |
Oriol Servia | |
2.2074 | 1:13.4960 | 1:13.4960 | 0.0214 | 7 | 7 | |
| 24 |  |
Justin Wilson | |
2.6148 | 1:13.9034 | 1:15.7964 | 0.4074 | 3 | 2 | |
| 25 |  |
Ed Carpenter | |
3.2831 | 1:14.5717 | 1:16.8343 | 0.6683 | 17 | 14 | |
| 26 |  |
Katherine Legge | |
5.0261 | 1:16.3147 | 1:18.2956 | 1.7430 | 20 | 12 |
