Alexander Rossi tops morning session for second day of testing at Phoenix

Ed Carpenter Racing’s Alexander Rossi led a gusty morning session for the Unser IndyCar Open Test at Phoenix Raceway on Wednesday.

Amid cloudy conditions that saw wind gusts exceed 20 mph, the 34-year-old California native propelled the No. 20 ECR Chevrolet to a flying lap of 174.444 mph (20.6370 seconds) around the 1-mile tri-oval.

Josef Newgarden continued his theme of running second throughout testing, pushing his No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet to a best lap of 174.362 mph. Uniquely, he logged just 14 laps in the session - the lowest of all drivers.

Reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou was third. The Spaniard managed to complete 79 laps over the course of the three-hour session, with a best of 174.220 mph.

David Malukas, Team Penske’s newest driver that led the first day of testing in the Valley of the Sun on Tuesday, carried the momentum into this morning and ended up fourth on the timesheets (173.759 mph).

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, who sat out for the opening hour as part of the team’s planned program running, elevated to fifth in the final 30 minutes of the session courtesy of a run at 173.706 mph.

Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson represented Andretti Global in sixth and seventh, respectively. Christian Rasmussen, Rossi’s teammate, was eighth. Andretti Global newcomer Will Power logged the most laps in the session at 105, with his best of 172.756 mph good enough to push him to ninth.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin rounded out the rest of the top 10, scoring a quick lap of 172.425 mph amid 65 laps of running.

Graham Rahal (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), Felix Rosenqvist (Meyer Shank Racing), Rinus VeeKay (Juncos Hollinger Racing), Louis Foster (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing), and Marcus Armstrong (Meyer Shank Racing), were 11th through 15th.

There was only one caution in the session, which was for a track inspection.

The IndyCar Series will run its final test session at this afternoon at 4 p.m. ET.