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 11^th.

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 14^th, while fastest rookie was Marcus Armstrong (Ganassi) in 16^th, 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