Long Beach IndyCar: Herta, Dixon, Ericsson lead warm-up

Herta’s Andretti Autosport-Honda lapped the 1.968-mile course in 65.8645secs, an average speed of 107.566mph.

That left him over three-tenths clear of Scott Dixon and over half a second up on Marcus Ericsson, although the Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas looked more competitive in race trim than in qualifying, when only Alex Palou made the Firestone Fast Six.

Meyer Shank Racing-Honda’s Simon Pagenaud, whose potential was not reflected by qualifying where he finished the session 10^th, demonstrated again that he will be a podium contender as he moved into fourth.

Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power went fifth fastest, the quickest driver of the session on primary tires and the quickest Chevy driver, and finished up just ahead of Andretti’s Romain Grosjean, who beat him to a Firestone Fast Six slot yesterday by 0.0001sec.

One of Power’s teammates was far less fortunate. Championship leader Scott McLaughlin, who will roll off ninth today, suffered a suspected broken header on his Penske-Chevrolet. His main frustration, he told NBC, was not being able to use the warm-up session to practice his in- and out-laps, getting his braking marks for pitlane and checking out tire degradation. For the latter, at least, he could lean on teammates Power and Josef Newgarden.

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda rookie David Malukas was an impressive seventh fastest, just ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy’s Rinus VeeKay.

Meyer Shank Racing-Honda’s Helio Castroneves survived a lurid half-spin out of Turn 4, somehow keeping it off the concrete on either side and finished the session in ninth, ahead of Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevy’s Callum Ilott.

Graham Rahal was less lucky than Castroneves as he too lost it out of Turn 4, clipping his left-rear tire against the wall as he slid, breaking a toe-link and part of his rear wing. That caused a red flag with eight minutes to go, but the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda team performed impressively to return the #15 to the track before the checkered flag fell.

Dalton Kellett was another driver to endure an interesting warm-up, clipping the tires at Turn 8 and ripping off an advertising banner, and later being nudged by an overenthusiastic Takuma Sato in the second Coyne car. Kellett's AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy survived unscathed.

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will get the green flag at 12.45pm local (Pacific) time.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	17	1'05.864		107.566
2	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	20	1'06.192	0.327	107.034
3	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	20	1'06.393	0.528	106.709
4	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	16	1'06.776	0.912	106.097
5	Will Power	Team Penske	17	1'06.820	0.955	106.028
6	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	16	1'06.831	0.967	106.010
7	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD	16	1'06.900	1.036	105.901
8	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	20	1'06.914	1.049	105.879
9	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	18	1'06.940	1.076	105.837
10	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	17	1'07.121	1.256	105.552
11	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	20	1'07.174	1.309	105.469
12	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	17	1'07.208	1.344	105.415
13	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	20	1'07.238	1.373	105.368
14	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	14	1'07.312	1.447	105.253
15	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	17	1'07.362	1.498	105.174
16	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	1'07.421	1.557	105.082
17	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	17	1'07.439	1.574	105.054
18	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	14	1'07.672	1.807	104.693
19	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	19	1'07.823	1.959	104.459
20	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	17	1'07.848	1.984	104.421
21	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	16	1'08.118	2.254	104.006
22	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	15	1'08.354	2.489	103.648
23	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	16	1'08.556	2.691	103.343
24	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	17	1'08.994	3.130	102.686
25	Tatiana Calderon	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	1'09.694	3.829	101.656
26	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	2	3'25.464	2'19.599	34.482
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