BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Friday trivia time: When was the last time a rookie led an IZOD IndyCar Series practice session?

Glad you asked. The answer is Simon Pagenaud in the warm-up at Baltimore last September.

Teammate Tristan Vautier is now the most recent. Driving the No. 55 Schmidt Peterson Motorsports car, the 23-year-old St. Petersburg, Fla., resident recorded a best lap of 1 minute, 09.0120 seconds to pace the first practice for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on the 2.380-mile, 17-turn Barber Motorsports Park course.

Click it: Practice 1 results

Vautier, the 2012 Firestone Indy Lights champion who qualified sixth in his series debut at St. Petersburg, led the 26-driver field. Scott Dixon, runner-up in each of the three races at Barber, was second (1:09.0646) in the No. 9 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car.

Vautier did bring out the lone red flag of the session when the No. 55 car went off the track in Turn 2 and was stuck in the gravel/sand mix until being lifted out.

"We didn’t damage the car or anything, but they didn’t put me back on track, they parked me behind the barriers," he said. "It’s my mistake in the end, even if it’s frustrating that I couldn’t get back in the end. My mistake, but we had good speed before that and the car felt good, so it’s tough. We didn’t have much time and we were cut short in the end, but it was an OK start.

"It’s good to be P1, but I didn’t want to end causing a red flag and in the gravel. What I’ll remember more than anything is the mistake I did at the end and try to not do it again and move forward."

Reigning series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay was third (1:09.1917) and Charlie Kimball (1:09.2798) was fourth. Two-time and defending race winner Will Power was fifth (1:09.2806). Three of the top five were Honda-powered cars.

A.J. Allmendinger, making his IZOD IndyCar Series debut, was ninth. The top 23 cars were separated by 1 second.

"Not as much grip out there, but we'll have to see how it progresses," said Allmendinger, who participated in the mid-March Open Test at Barber. "Overall, I thought the session went fairly well. I felt comfortable. We just need to work on the balance of the car and figure out where track is going to go and for me, really, see how that affects what we need to do."

A second session is at 4:45 p.m. (ET). The three rounds of qualifications commence at 9 a.m. (ET) April 6.