The Dual in Detroit weekend for the Verizon IndyCar Series got started Friday morning as the field got back to action for the first time since last Sunday's 99th Running of the Indianapolis 500. Practice 1 for the IndyCar teams and drivers was the third session to hit the Belle Isle street circuit with Pirelli World Challenge and the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship having their first sessions of the weekend earlier in the morning.
Sage Karam set a fantastic lap and went to P1 in the late stages of the session, but he was unable to better this time as he spun on the very next lap. Within the final two minutes of the session, Karam's Ganassi teammate Tony Kanaan went to the top of the time sheet and closed out the session with the fastest lap.
Kanaan's lap of 1:16.2931 was good enough to best Karam, Power, Pagenaud, and Castroneves, the rest of the top five, as well all other 22 drivers who took to the track for the session. Karam finished the session P2 with a 1:16.4935.
Juan Pablo Montoya, winner of last Sunday's '500,' was 10th quickest in the opening session; he was the slowest of the four Penske cars.
With Kanaan and Karam at the top, Ganassi occupied the top two spots as Penske rounded out the remainder of the top five (Power, Pagenaud, Castroneves).
Stefano Coletti was surprisingly fast in the opening practice session; when the checkers came out, the No. 4 KVSH Racing Technology car driven by Coletti was sixth fastest.
The fastest Honda in the session was that of Takuma Sato who was ninth fastest.
The next time the Verizon IndyCar Series will be on track will be for qualifying for Saturday's Race 1 at 3:30 pm ET. Follow @VAVELIndyCar for live tweets and photos from the track throughout this Dual in Detroit weekend.
Aaron Durant is the editor of the VAVEL USA Racing section. Follow him on Twitter at @DoubleA291.