Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Alex Palou, around whom so much controversy is swirling at the moment, put his 2023 considerations aside to go quickest on the hard compound Firestones, his 19th lap producing a 70.9799sec 123.703mph of the 2.439-mile road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with around half an hour of the 90min session left to run.
Then Rinus VeeKay, who won on this course in May 2021, overhauled him on the alternate compound to slot his Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy into top spot.
Alexander Rossi and rookie teammate Devlin DeFrancesco then moved their Andretti Autosport-Hondas into first and second with their second laps on the reds, Rossi’s best being a 70.0919. The pair were soon separated from each other by a pair of Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Hondas, those of Jack Harvey and Rookie of the Year points leader Christian Lundgaard, and their teammate Graham Rahal soon joined them in the low 70s.
Colton Herta moved up to second in another Andretti car before Josef Newgarden claimed second in the #2 Team Penske-Chevrolet. That seemed to prove his re-evaluation following his Iowa incidents would be somewhat superfluous.
One of his teammates Scott McLaughlin slotted into fourth, just ahead of Palou who also found strong pace on reds.
His other teammate, Will Power, who has taken six poles and five wins at this track, didn’t find the necessary speed while his reds were at their best and wound up only 18th fastest. He did, however, evoke a “nice save” comment from his strategist Ron Ruzewski after gathering up an alarming, smoky oversteer moment at Turn 8 while on the harder compound rubber.
.@12WillPower doin' Will Power things.#INDYCAR // #GallagherGP pic.twitter.com/dxtASaV59a
— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) July 29, 2022
Less successful in terms of honing their handling was Pato O’Ward, who took three adventures into grass and dirt in his Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet to finish up 20th fastest.
Romain Grosjean also appeared to have a very loose racecar, and was way off his teammates’ times and down in 21st.
Qualifying begins at 1pm local (Eastern) time.
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 31 | 1'10.0919 | 125.270 | |
2 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 27 | 1'10.1121 | 0.0202 | 125.234 |
3 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 25 | 1'10.1507 | 0.0588 | 125.165 |
4 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 32 | 1'10.2065 | 0.1146 | 125.065 |
5 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 29 | 1'10.2093 | 0.1174 | 125.060 |
6 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 29 | 1'10.2948 | 0.2029 | 124.908 |
7 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren SP | 25 | 1'10.2948 | 0.2029 | 124.908 |
8 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 29 | 1'10.3237 | 0.2318 | 124.857 |
9 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing | 25 | 1'10.3694 | 0.2775 | 124.776 |
10 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 29 | 1'10.4016 | 0.3097 | 124.719 |
11 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 27 | 1'10.4739 | 0.3820 | 124.591 |
12 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 32 | 1'10.5234 | 0.4315 | 124.503 |
13 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne Racing | 30 | 1'10.5350 | 0.4431 | 124.483 |
14 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 30 | 1'10.5927 | 0.5008 | 124.381 |
15 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 31 | 1'10.5991 | 0.5072 | 124.370 |
16 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank Racing | 27 | 1'10.6038 | 0.5119 | 124.362 |
17 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti Autosport | 29 | 1'10.6040 | 0.5121 | 124.361 |
18 | Will Power | Team Penske | 34 | 1'10.6196 | 0.5277 | 124.334 |
19 | Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 30 | 1'10.6478 | 0.5559 | 124.284 |
20 | Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 26 | 1'10.7272 | 0.6353 | 124.145 |
21 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti Autosport | 30 | 1'10.7344 | 0.6425 | 124.132 |
22 | Kyle Kirkwood | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 29 | 1'11.1466 | 1.0547 | 123.413 |
23 | Takuma Sato | Dale Coyne Racing | 28 | 1'11.2690 | 1.1771 | 123.201 |
24 | Jimmie Johnson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 39 | 1'11.6786 | 1.5867 | 122.497 |
25 | Dalton Kellett | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 20 | 1'12.4978 | 2.4059 | 121.113 |
View full results |