IndyCar GP Indy: Rossi leads Harvey in opening practice

Following the news that Max Chilton’s Carlin-Chevrolet won’t be taking part in this weekend’s Grand Prix of Indianapolis, the car count in opening practice was further reduced when Alex Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda sprung a water leak and was towed back to the garage area.

Then Sebastien Bourdais’ AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet ground to a halt on its third lap due to an electrical problem, and therefore was penalized for five minutes having caused a red flag. That was a moot point, however, as he never returned to action.

Rinus VeeKay, who set his first pole position and scored his first podium at this venue in last October’s Harvest Grand Prix, sat at the top of the times for most of the session. The #21 Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet turned a 70.0624sec 125.323mph on its fifth lap of the 14-turn, 2.439-mile track with Josef Newgarden’s Team Penske-Chevrolet sitting just 0.0019sec adrift – the pair of them 0.34sec clear of the field.

Then Alexander Rossi got within the same tenth, having earlier had a trip off road and then his #27 Andretti Autosport-Honda ducked under the 70sec barrier with a 69.8784 on his 11^th lap.

Semi-teammate Jack Harvey, front-row starter here last year, went second quickest for Meyer Shank Racing-Honda, also getting down to a 69sec lap, while Colton Herta left it until his last lap to grab sixth, behind Romain Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda.

Rookie Scott McLaughlin made it two Team Penske-Chevrolets in seventh ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay in the third Andretti car.

Graham Rahal survived a puncture and a spin to claim ninth but was unhappy with his car’s handling, while Conor Daly in the second ECR-Chevy claimed 10^th.

Will Power, five-time IMS road course polesitter and four-time winner, was only 13^th fastest but still ahead of championship leader and defending champion Scott Dixon.

Also looking uncharacteristically slow – relatively speaking – were the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolets of Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist. Their temporary teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya – who hasn’t started an IndyCar road course race since 2016 – was 0.6sec off Rosenqvist, and a couple of tenths ahead of NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson in the Ganassi-Honda. He took the checkered flag twice, so will be forced to sit out the first five minutes of second practice.

Second practice will begin at 1pm local (Eastern) time, with qualifying set to start at 4.45pm.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	12	1'09.878		125.653
2	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	17	1'09.964	0.086	125.498
3	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	20	1'10.062	0.184	125.323
4	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	15	1'10.064	0.185	125.319
5	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing with RWR	17	1'10.158	0.280	125.151
6	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	15	1'10.225	0.346	125.032
7	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	21	1'10.304	0.426	124.891
8	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	15	1'10.435	0.557	124.659
9	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	1'10.474	0.595	124.590
10	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	14	1'10.499	0.621	124.545
11	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	14	1'10.510	0.631	124.527
12	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan	13	1'10.554	0.675	124.449
13	Will Power	Team Penske	13	1'10.704	0.826	124.184
14	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport	14	1'10.725	0.847	124.147
15	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	11	1'10.729	0.850	124.141
16	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	13	1'10.772	0.894	124.065
17	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	16	1'10.800	0.922	124.015
18	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	11	1'10.813	0.934	123.994
19	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	18	1'10.864	0.985	123.905
20	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	14	1'10.965	1.087	123.728
21	Juan Pablo Montoya	Arrow McLaren SP	13	1'11.483	1.604	122.831
22	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	22	1'11.687	1.808	122.482
23	Charlie Kimball	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	4	1'12.200	2.322	121.612
24	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	3	1'30.866	20.988	96.629
25	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	0
26	Max Chilton	Carlin	0
View full results