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David Malsher-Lopez

Ericsson leads third IndyCar test session at Thermal

Ericsson, fresh from receiving his ‘Baby Borg’ from BorgWarner Inc. in honor of his 2022 Indy 500 triumph, took only four laps of the 3.076-mile 17-turn track to lower the IndyCar lap record at the venue to 1min38.4223sec, an average speed of 112.182mph.

But Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda’s Christian Lundgaard, who was second quickest in yesterday afternoon’s session, also delivered a 112mph effort to claim second fastest, albeit 0.1459sec slower.

Kyle Kirkwood, who replaces Alexander Rossi in Andretti Autosport-Honda’s line-up for 2023, was fastest representative for Michael Andretti’s squad, 0.3662sec off top spot.

Team Penske’s two-time and reigning champion Will Power left it until the dying minutes to punch in Chevrolet’s best time of the session, shading teammate Scott McLaughlin by a mere 0.035sec.

Felix Rosenqvist was top representative for Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet, but as he did twice yesterday, the Swede spun and stalled , bringing out a red flag that ended the session slightly early. His teammate Pato O’Ward also caused a red with a spin, as did Andretti Autosport’s Devlin DeFrancesco, while new third Arrow McLaren driver Alexander Rossi turned the most laps, 38, on his way to 11th.

Six-time champion Scott Dixon was seventh for Ganassi, just ahead of teammate Alex Palou, while Callum Ilott again impressed for Juncos Hollinger-Chevrolet in ninth, just 0.0047sec ahead of the third Penske of Newgarden.

Yesterday’s pacesetter Colton Herta was only 14th, while fastest rookie was Marcus Armstrong (Ganassi) in 16th, splitting the Meyer Shank Racing-Hondas of Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves.

Juncos Hollinger’s second driver, touring car ace Agustin Canapino, was again impressive, within one second of team leader Ilott, and ahead of Graham Rahal and Conor Daly.

The next session will begin at 1.30pm local time and will run until 4.00pm, when, as per yesterday, the teams will commence pitstop practice.

P

Name

FTime

Diff

FL

Laps

FSpeed

Engine

Team

1

Marcus Ericsson

1:38.4223

1:38.4223

4

16

112.182

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

2

Christian Lundgaard

1:38.5682

0.1459

7

29

112.016

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

3

Kyle Kirkwood

1:38.7885

0.3662

7

36

111.766

Honda

Andretti Autosport

4

Will Power

1:38.8702

0.4479

24

24

111.674

Chevy

Team Penske

5

Scott McLaughlin

1:38.9052

0.4829

33

34

111.634

Chevy

Team Penske

6

Felix Rosenqvist

1:38.9410

0.5187

4

30

111.594

Chevy

Arrow McLaren

7

Scott Dixon

1:38.9762

0.5539

9

29

111.554

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

8

Alex Palou

1:38.9872

0.5649

23

24

111.542

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

9

Callum Ilott

1:39.0254

0.6031

20

21

111.499

Chevy

Juncos Hollinger Racing

10

Josef Newgarden

1:39.0301

0.6078

29

29

111.493

Chevy

Team Penske

11

Alexander Rossi

1:39.0913

0.6690

38

38

111.425

Chevy

Arrow McLaren

12

Romain Grosjean

1:39.0944

0.6721

9

23

111.421

Honda

Andretti Autosport

13

Pato O'Ward

1:39.1486

0.7263

7

24

111.360

Chevy

Arrow McLaren

14

Colton Herta

1:39.2164

0.7941

10

29

111.284

Honda

Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian

15

Simon Pagenaud

1:39.3034

0.8811

24

27

111.187

Honda

Meyer Shank Racing

16

Marcus Armstrong

1:39.3185

0.8962

11

31

111.170

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

17

Helio Castroneves

1:39.3803

0.9580

14

23

111.100

Honda

Meyer Shank Racing

18

David Malukas

1:39.3834

0.9611

22

34

111.097

Honda

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

19

Devlin DeFrancesco

1:39.5308

1.1085

16

24

110.932

Honda

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

20

Jack Harvey

1:39.6960

1.2737

14

27

110.749

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

21

Rinus VeeKay

1:39.8912

1.4689

27

38

110.532

Chevy

Ed Carpenter Racing

22

Santino Ferrucci

1:39.9366

1.5143

16

16

110.482

Chevy

AJ Foyt Enterprises

23

Agustin Canapino

1:39.9583

1.5360

10

24

110.458

Chevy

Juncos Holling Racing

24

Graham Rahal

1:40.1125

1.6902

9

31

110.288

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

25

Conor Daly

1:40.1192

1.6969

14

28

110.281

Chevy

Ed Carpenter Racing

26

Benjamin Pedersen

1:40.3709

1.9486

14

28

110.004

Chevy

AJ Foyt Enterprises

27

Sting Ray Robb

1:40.4460

2.0237

19

32

109.922

Honda

Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

 

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