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Practice report
IndyCar Laguna Seca

Laguna Seca IndyCar: Palou heads McLaughlin in warm-up

Alex Palou topped race day warm-up for the 2022 IndyCar finale at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey, ahead of Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Drivers spent the session either scrubbing sets of tires or testing how long their tires last on the abrasive WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Pato O’Ward saw a drop off of around 2.5 seconds running a dozen laps on the Firestone alternates on his Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet, Rinus VeeKay saw seven second fall-off in his Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet over 18 laps also on the softer rubber.

On alternate tires, Alex Palou ahead of probably his final event for Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, set a best time of 1min12.9318sec. The outgoing champion will be starting the race from 11th, having received a six-place grid drop due to an early change to a fifth Honda.

McLaughlin of Team Penske-Chevrolet finished second, with a time set on Firestone primaries, ahead of Alexander Rossi who will begin his final race for Andretti Autosport-Honda from third on the grid.

David Malukas, seeking to claim the Rookie of the Year title from sixth on the grid, was fourth fastest ahead of another Andretti car, Devlin DeFrancesco’s.

VeeKay’s best effort on his run netted sixth fastest ahead of Felix Rosenqvist (AMSP) and Chip Ganassi Racing’s main title contender today, Scott Dixon.

Colton Herta fell off the track exiting Turn 10 but got into ninth, just ahead of teammate Romain Grosjean who’ll start from fourth alongside another teammate, Rossi.

The green flag drops on the IndyCar finale at 12.30pm local (Pacific) time. Will Power starts from pole and has a 21 point lead over Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden, who starts from 25th after a spin in qualifying.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 17 1'12.9318   110.470
2 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 23 1'13.4435 0.5117 109.701
3 United States Alexander Rossi United States Andretti Autosport 19 1'13.5703 0.6385 109.512
4 United States David Malukas United States Dale Coyne Racing 22 1'13.6474 0.7156 109.397
5 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 17 1'13.7738 0.8420 109.210
6 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 18 1'13.7992 0.8674 109.172
7 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist United States Arrow McLaren SP 20 1'13.8478 0.9160 109.100
8 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 18 1'13.8854 0.9536 109.045
9 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 14 1'13.9340 1.0022 108.973
10 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 18 1'14.0163 1.0845 108.852
11 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 16 1'14.0920 1.1602 108.740
12 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 18 1'14.2023 1.2705 108.579
13 United Kingdom Callum Ilott United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 20 1'14.2863 1.3545 108.456
14 Mexico Patricio O'Ward United States Arrow McLaren SP 23 1'14.3414 1.4096 108.376
15 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 17 1'14.3951 1.4633 108.297
16 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 18 1'14.4042 1.4724 108.284
17 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 18 1'14.6869 1.7551 107.874
18 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 19 1'14.6983 1.7665 107.858
19 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 18 1'15.0707 2.1389 107.323
20 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 17 1'15.0733 2.1415 107.319
21 Japan Takuma Sato United States Dale Coyne Racing 19 1'15.0893 2.1575 107.296
22 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 19 1'15.2001 2.2683 107.138
23 Switzerland Simona de Silvestro Paretta Autosport 18 1'15.5574 2.6256 106.632
24 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 16 1'15.7477 2.8159 106.364
25 United States Jimmie Johnson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 17 1'15.8677 2.9359 106.195
26 Canada Dalton Kellett United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 17 1'16.1983 3.2665 105.735

 

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