Rossi rises to the fore in final Long Beach practice

Alexander Rossi bested Graham Rahal to lead the final pre-qualifying practice session for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

The defending race winner rebounded from a couple off-track excursions to pull off the fastest lap of the weekend so far in the final seconds at

Rossi recovered from a couple off-track excursions pull off to unseat Rahal by .1278s with a lap of 1 minute 07.0588 seconds. The session was hotly contest with 13 drivers within .5s of each other.

A pair of NTT IndyCar Series champions - Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay took turns leading the 45-minute session and completed a Honda quartet at the top of the timesheets.

Simon Pagenaud also rose to the fore late to post the fifth quickest time which solidified him as the fastest Chevrolet for Team Penske. He was followed by his Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, who was a scant .045 of a second behind.

IndyCar’s three leading rookies claimed the next three spots led by COTA winner Colton Herta followed by Felix Rosenqvist and Patricio O’Ward while two-time Long Beach winner Will Power rounded out the top ten.

A handful of drivers kissed the barriers but none warranted a red flag.