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David Malsher-Lopez

IndyCar GP Indy: O’Ward leads first practice, RLL star

Inevitably the rookies hit the track first, using their extra set of Firestone primaries, but then it was the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team who sprung to the fore, with first Christian Lundgaard and then Jack Harvey hitting the top of the times. Harvey, who scored his only IndyCar podium on the 2.439-mile road course in 2019, lapped the course in 1m10.4121s, an average speed of 124.700mph.

Harvey’s time was shaded by 2021 champion Alex Palou in Chip Ganassi Racing’s #10 and then CGR’s six-time champ Scott Dixon, but he remained third. Palou lowered his time on primaries to 1m10.2689. Behind Harvey was 2021 IMS roadcourse winner Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing, chased by Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Will Power.

With 12 minutes to go, the times started to tumble as drivers tried out their sets of Firestone alternates, with Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren sandwiching the RLL cars of Lundgaard and Harvey, chased by Power and VeeKay. O’Ward’s benchmark was 1m09.4981s, an average of 126.340mph.

Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson bounced into the top six with five minutes remaining, while Alex Palou went third fastest.

McLaughlin improved to fourth, as teammate Newgarden was late leaving on reds due to an apparent clutch problem.

Colton Herta was unable to set a representative time, as his new Honda unit started smoking on his first installation lap at the start of the session and he returned to the garage. The team just got him out for another installation lap in the final two minutes.

Second practice begins at 1.00pm local (Eastern) time.

P

Name

FTime

Diff

FL

Laps

FSpeed

Engine

Tire

Team

1

Pato O'Ward

1:09.4981

1:09.4981

14

16

126.340

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren

2

Christian Lundgaard

1:09.4988

0.0007

26

31

126.339

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

3

Alex Palou

1:09.5213

0.0232

19

22

126.298

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

4

Scott McLaughlin

1:09.5465

0.0484

21

21

126.252

Chevy

A

Team Penske

5

Jack Harvey

1:09.5976

0.0995

17

20

126.160

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

6

Felix Rosenqvist

1:09.7152

0.2171

15

19

125.947

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren

7

Marcus Ericsson

1:09.7706

0.2725

17

18

125.847

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

8

Scott Dixon

1:09.7811

0.2830

20

21

125.828

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

9

Will Power

1:09.9494

0.4513

19

23

125.525

Chevy

A

Team Penske

10

Rinus VeeKay

1:09.9595

0.4614

17

21

125.507

Chevy

A

Ed Carpenter Racing

11

Marcus Armstrong

1:09.9771

0.4790

27

30

125.475

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

12

Kyle Kirkwood

1:09.9802

0.4821

19

21

125.470

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport

13

Graham Rahal

1:10.0010

0.5029

21

22

125.432

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

14

Conor Daly

1:10.0138

0.5157

21

23

125.410

Chevy

A

Ed Carpenter Racing

15

Josef Newgarden

1:10.0681

0.5700

21

22

125.312

Chevy

A

Team Penske

16

Romain Grosjean

1:10.0800

0.5819

20

24

125.291

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport

17

Alexander Rossi

1:10.1417

0.6436

19

21

125.181

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren

18

Simon Pagenaud

1:10.1975

0.6994

21

24

125.081

Honda

A

Meyer Shank Racing

19

David Malukas

1:10.2324

0.7343

18

19

125.019

Honda

A

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

20

Sting Ray Robb

1:10.3928

0.8947

24

26

124.734

Honda

A

Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

21

Callum Ilott

1:10.4085

0.9104

16

21

124.707

Chevy

A

Juncos Hollinger Racing

22

Devlin DeFrancesco

1:10.4150

0.9169

21

24

124.695

Honda

A

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

23

Helio Castroneves

1:10.5015

1.0034

14

16

124.542

Honda

A

Meyer Shank Racing

24

Santino Ferrucci

1:10.6467

1.1486

19

19

124.286

Chevy

A

AJ Foyt Enterprises

25

Benjamin Pedersen

1:10.7691

1.2710

28

31

124.071

Chevy

A

AJ Foyt Enterprises

26

Agustin Canapino

1:10.9736

1.4755

26

27

123.714

Chevy

A

Juncos Holling Racing

27

Colton Herta

No Time

---

1

1

---

Honda

P

Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian

 

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