IndyCar GP Indy: Palou fastest in first practice
Ganassi’s defending champion Alex Palou left it until the final seconds of opening practice on the Indy road course to go fastest and displace the impressive Callum Ilott of Juncos Racing and Penske’s Will Power.
The session was red flagged with just 1min38sec left of the guaranteed 45min time, as Helio Castroneves spun his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda at Turn 13, just after setting his fastest lap of the morning.
When the session restarted, it looked unlikely that anyone could get their tires up to temperature soon enough to make a difference to the fastest times, but Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda pair Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson strapped on new tires to suddenly burst into first and sixth respectively.
Rookies are granted an extra set of tires in the opening session, but Ilott used them wisely, and with three minutes to go in the session, sneaked ahead of Power by 0.0684sec to claim what was then fastest time. The Briton lapped the 2.439-mile 14-turn road course in 1min10.4593sec, an average speed of 124.617mph.
Power, who has five wins and five pole positions on the Indianapolis road course, set his fastest time on the 10th of 17 laps.
Graham Rahal was second quickest of the Honda drivers, slotting his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry into fourth ahead of the quicker of the two Arrow McLaren SP-Chevys, that of Felix Rosenqvist, who scored his first IndyCar pole at this venue in his rookie season of 2019.
Simon Pagenaud, who has won here three times, was seventh fastest ahead of Jack Harvey of RLL, who scored his (so far) only IndyCar podium at this track in the wet in 2019.
Colton Herta was quickest of the Andretti Autosport-Hondas, but down in 10th, a hair quicker than AMSP’s winner of the previous round, Pato O’Ward.
The Ed Carpenter Racing pairing of Conor Daly and Rinus VeeKay were languishing down in 19th and 21st, a surprise given that the Dutch youngster won this race last year.
Jimmie Johnson was only 1.2sec off the ultimate pace, on a track where he first tested an IndyCar, and he was ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in the third AMSP-Chevy.
|
P |
Name |
FTime |
Diff |
FL |
Laps |
FSpeed |
Engine |
Team |
|
1 |
Alex Palou |
1:10.4555 |
|
18 |
18 |
124.623 |
Honda |
|
|
2 |
1:10.4593 |
0.0038 |
16 |
19 |
124.617 |
Chevy |
Juncos Hollinger Racing |
|
|
3 |
1:10.5277 |
0.0722 |
10 |
17 |
124.496 |
Chevy |
||
|
4 |
Graham Rahal |
1:10.6125 |
0.1570 |
14 |
16 |
124.346 |
Honda |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
|
5 |
Felix Rosenqvist |
1:10.7108 |
0.2553 |
5 |
15 |
124.173 |
Chevy |
|
|
6 |
Marcus Ericsson |
1:10.7123 |
0.2568 |
18 |
18 |
124.171 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
|
7 |
Simon Pagenaud |
1:10.7459 |
0.2904 |
5 |
13 |
124.112 |
Honda |
|
|
8 |
Jack Harvey |
1:10.7817 |
0.3262 |
11 |
15 |
124.049 |
Honda |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
|
9 |
Helio Castroneves |
1:10.7911 |
0.3356 |
13 |
13 |
124.033 |
Honda |
Meyer Shank Racing |
|
10 |
Colton Herta |
1:10.8352 |
0.3797 |
8 |
15 |
123.955 |
Honda |
|
|
11 |
1:10.8584 |
0.4029 |
9 |
12 |
123.915 |
Chevy |
Arrow McLaren SP |
|
|
12 |
1:10.8597 |
0.4042 |
9 |
17 |
123.912 |
Honda |
Andretti Autosport |
|
|
13 |
1:10.8632 |
0.4077 |
4 |
18 |
123.906 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
|
|
14 |
1:10.8853 |
0.4298 |
3 |
17 |
123.868 |
Honda |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
|
|
15 |
1:10.8906 |
0.4351 |
4 |
17 |
123.858 |
Honda |
Andretti Autosport |
|
|
16 |
1:10.9343 |
0.4788 |
4 |
17 |
123.782 |
Chevy |
Team Penske |
|
|
17 |
1:10.9543 |
0.4988 |
15 |
15 |
123.747 |
Chevy |
Team Penske |
|
|
18 |
1:10.9703 |
0.5148 |
17 |
20 |
123.719 |
Honda |
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD |
|
|
19 |
Conor Daly |
1:11.0008 |
0.5453 |
9 |
15 |
123.666 |
Chevy |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
|
20 |
1:11.0064 |
0.5509 |
15 |
18 |
123.656 |
Honda |
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport |
|
|
21 |
Rinus VeeKay |
1:11.0720 |
0.6165 |
12 |
13 |
123.542 |
Chevy |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
|
22 |
1:11.1887 |
0.7332 |
10 |
15 |
123.340 |
Honda |
Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR |
|
|
23 |
1:11.5867 |
1.1312 |
15 |
16 |
122.654 |
Chevy |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
|
|
24 |
Jimmie Johnson |
1:11.6603 |
1.2048 |
19 |
22 |
122.528 |
Honda |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
|
25 |
Juan Pablo Montoya |
1:12.0074 |
1.5519 |
5 |
14 |
121.937 |
Chevy |
Arrow McLaren SP |
|
26 |
1:12.2094 |
1.7539 |
4 |
18 |
121.596 |
Chevy |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
|
|
27 |
1:12.4361 |
1.9806 |
5 |
11 |
121.216 |
Chevy |
AJ Foyt Enterprises |
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