Pagenaud, the 2016 Long Beach winner, clocked a 1m07.1991s in the session, eclipsing two-time Long Beach winner Alexander Rossi of Andretti Autosport by 0.4021s. Pagenaud's best time was two seconds quicker than Colton Herta's first practice time from last year's Long Beach in September.
Apart from the usual problems of drivers outbraking themselves and having harmless trips to run-off zones – Ganassi’s Scott Dixon and the Andretti cars of Romain Grosjean and Colton Herta were three high-profile candidates – the main incidents were caused by Jimmie Johnson who nosed into a tire wall after grabbing too much curb on corner entry, and Dalton Kellett who spun and stalled. Both incidents required a red flag.
