Dixon, who will start fifth tomorrow, strapped on a set of alternate Firestones – like many drivers – and lapped the 2.238-mile course in 68.0256sec, a half tenth quicker than Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport-Honda.

Romain Grosjean was third fastest for Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda, but finished the session annoyed with fellow former Formula 1 driver Marcus Ericsson, who ushered him off track on the exit of Turn 5 in the closing minutes. Ericsson, who finished the session in eighth, will be starting third tomorrow.

Max Chilton gave Carlin-Chevrolet a fillip by clocking fourth fastest time ahead of the second-fastest of the Andretti runners, James Hinchcliffe.

Alex Palou was sixth for Chip Ganassi Racing, just ahead of pole-winner Josef Newgarden.

Jimmie Johnson survived a spin but was still 2.2sec off the ultimate pace, albeit only a tenth behind Dalton Kellett of AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet.

Rookie Scott McLaughlin was busiest driver of the session, turning 23 laps in his Penske-Chevrolet and finishing up inside the Top 10. 

Tomorrow’s race begins at 12 noon local (Eastern) time.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	20	1'08.025		119.496
2	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	19	1'08.074	0.048	119.410
3	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	22	1'08.149	0.123	119.280
4	Max Chilton	Carlin	18	1'08.164	0.138	119.254
5	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	18	1'08.242	0.217	119.116
6	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	20	1'08.324	0.299	118.973
7	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	20	1'08.328	0.302	118.967
8	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	21	1'08.431	0.405	118.788
9	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	23	1'08.443	0.417	118.767
10	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing	20	1'08.547	0.522	118.586
11	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	22	1'08.567	0.541	118.552
12	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	15	1'08.649	0.624	118.410
13	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	16	1'08.806	0.781	118.139
14	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	17	1'08.827	0.802	118.104
15	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	20	1'08.966	0.940	117.866
16	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	17	1'08.973	0.947	117.854
17	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	17	1'09.019	0.994	117.775
18	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	16	1'09.145	1.119	117.561
19	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	21	1'09.153	1.127	117.548
20	Will Power	Team Penske	22	1'09.216	1.191	117.440
21	Ryan Norman	Dale Coyne Racing	16	1'09.291	1.265	117.314
22	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	20	1'09.326	1.300	117.254
23	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	17	1'09.480	1.455	116.993
24	Santino Ferrucci	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	20	1'09.917	1.892	116.262
25	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	22	1'10.146	2.121	115.883
26	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'10.264	2.238	115.689
View full results