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Motorsport
Motorsport
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David Malsher-Lopez

Herta fastest in eight-car Indy road course test

The Andretti Autosport-Honda ace, who last month won the wet GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis from 16th on the grid, lapped the 2.439-mile course in 70.5574sec, an average speed of 124.443mph which is around 0.1sec slower than fastest time in the first practice for the Grand Prix.

However, the relevance of these times is somewhat under question. The drivers’ fastest laps came on sets of tires devised for Barber Motorsports Park, and the tires that will be used in the second Indy road course race of the season, to be held on July 29-30, were slightly slower.

Alexander Rossi, who will be departing Andretti Autosport for Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet at the end of this season, was second fastest, 0.19sec slower than Herta but fractionally ahead of his next team’s drivers, Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist. However, after lunch and running the ‘slower’ tires on a hot track, Rossi moved up to the top of the charts ahead of Rosenqvist, Herta and O’Ward.

Romain Grosjean and Devlin De Francesco were 0.58 and 0.84sec off their pacesetting teammate, but ahead of their future teammate, Kyle Kirkwood, currently in the AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet. In the afternoon session, Kirkwood was able to move ahead of this pair, as he very nearly replicated the time he had set on the slightly faster tires in the morning session.

Paretta Autosport’s Simona De Silvestro, who made her road course IndyCar comeback two weeks ago at Road America, has made big strides at getting back into the swing of racing an open-wheel car, even taking into account the fact that she was on a much shorter track today. Her best lap was within 1.3sec of Herta’s top time, while in the afternoon session on the more relevant tires, she was 1.5sec off top spot.

IndyCar’s next race, the ninth round of the 2022 season, will be in 10 days at Mid-Ohio Sports Car course.

Overall fastest times

P Driver Team-Engine Fastest Lap Speed Laps
1 Colton Herta Andretti Autosport-Honda 70.5574sec 124.443mph 63
2 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport-Honda 70.7497sec 124.105mph 78
3 Pato O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet 70.7898sec 124.035mph 79
4 Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet 70.8142sec 123.992mph 94
5 Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport-Honda 71.1413sec 123.422mph 77
6 Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport-Honda 71.3987sec 122.977mph 61
7 Kyle Kirkwood AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet 71.4427 122.901mph 60
8 Simona De Silvestro Paretta Autosport-Chevrolet 71.8532sec 122.199mph 91

Afternoon times

P Driver Team-Engine F. Lap
1 Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport-Honda 71.040sec
2= Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet 71.180sec
2= Colton Herta Andretti Autosport-Honda 71.180sec
4 Pato O'Ward Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet 71.190sec
5 Kyle Kirkwood AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet 71.495sec
6 Romain Grosjean Andretti Autosport-Honda 71.540sec
7 Devlin DeFrancesco Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport-Honda 71.760sec
8 Simona De Silvestro Paretta Autosport-Chevrolet 72.595sec
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