Herta improves, stays top after Thermal IndyCar test Day 1

The Andretti Autosport-Honda ace lapped the 17-turn 2.9-mile course in 1min39.3721sec, clocking an average speed of 111.110mph, on his 17^th of 23 laps.

However, unlike this morning’s session, several other drivers broke beneath the 100sec barrier, and his nearest pursuer was Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda’s sophomore Christian Lundgaard, a mere 0.0046sec in arrears, despite losing five minutes of track time as punishment for bringing out a red flag with a spin.

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Alex Palou, the 2021 IndyCar champion, was third fastest, ahead of another Andretti driver, Romain Grosjean.

Reigning and two-time IndyCar champion, Team Penske’s Will Power, was fastest of the Chevrolet runners, 0.1969sec off top spot with his 23^rd of 26 laps, narrowly edging his longtime rival Scott Dixon in the second Ganassi entry.

The Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet team showed superbly, with Callum Ilott clocking seventh fastest, and multiple TC2000 champion Agustin Canapino, a rookie in open-wheel racing of any kind, finishing the day 20^th. He did cause one of five red flags this afternoon with a spin and stall, but this could not detract from his on-track effort. Canapino’s best time was little more than one second slower than Herta’s benchmark and around 0.7sec slower than Ilott.

Simon Pagenaud, fresh off his Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona win, was ninth fastest for Meyer Shank Racing-Honda.

Fastest rookie was former Formula 2 winner Marcus Armstrong, who will campaign the #11 Ganassi entry on road and street courses this year, and cede his seat to Takuma Sato for the ovals. However, he did cause the fifth and final red flag when his car stopped at pit entry at the close of the session.

Aside from Armstrong, Canapino, and Lundgaard, the other reds were caused by rookie Sting Ray Robb (Dale Coyne Racing-Honda) and Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet), the latter of whom also spun this morning.

Kyle Kirkwood’s failure to set a representative time in his Andretti car was due to a failed clutch.

Testing resumes at 9am local (Pacific) time on Friday.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Tire	Team
1	Colton Herta	1:39.3721	1:39.3721	17	23	111.110	Honda	P	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
2	Christian Lundgaard	1:39.3767	0.0046	26	29	111.105	Honda	P	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
3	Alex Palou	1:39.3970	0.0249	18	28	111.082	Honda	P	Chip Ganassi Racing
4	Romain Grosjean	1:39.4826	0.1105	19	25	110.986	Honda	P	Andretti Autosport
5	Will Power	1:39.5690	0.1969	23	26	110.890	Chevy	P	Team Penske
6	Scott Dixon	1:39.6211	0.2490	18	18	110.832	Honda	P	Chip Ganassi Racing
7	Callum Ilott	1:39.6673	0.2952	5	26	110.781	Chevy	P	Juncos Hollinger Racing
8	Scott McLaughlin	1:39.7657	0.3936	23	23	110.671	Chevy	P	Team Penske
9	Simon Pagenaud	1:39.7862	0.4141	18	23	110.649	Honda	P	Meyer Shank Racing
10	Marcus Armstrong	1:39.9077	0.5356	19	21	110.514	Honda	P	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	Rinus VeeKay	1:39.9408	0.5687	20	21	110.477	Chevy	P	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	Marcus Ericsson	1:39.9746	0.6025	13	24	110.440	Honda	P	Chip Ganassi Racing
13	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:39.9805	0.6084	29	29	110.434	Honda	P	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
14	David Malukas	1:40.0088	0.6367	25	27	110.402	Honda	P	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
15	Pato O'Ward	1:40.0468	0.6747	15	24	110.360	Chevy	P	Arrow McLaren
16	Alexander Rossi	1:40.1446	0.7725	6	11	110.253	Chevy	P	Arrow McLaren
17	Josef Newgarden	1:40.3516	0.9795	21	26	110.025	Chevy	P	Team Penske
18	Jack Harvey	1:40.3712	0.9991	7	21	110.004	Honda	P	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
19	Felix Rosenqvist	1:40.3928	1.0207	5	18	109.980	Chevy	P	Arrow McLaren
20	Agustin Canapino	1:40.4464	1.0743	30	30	109.921	Chevy	P	Juncos Holling Racing
21	Graham Rahal	1:40.5516	1.1795	3	22	109.806	Honda	P	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
22	Conor Daly	1:40.5622	1.1901	20	21	109.795	Chevy	P	Ed Carpenter Racing
23	Santino Ferrucci	1:40.5724	1.2003	15	15	109.784	Chevy	P	AJ Foyt Enterprises
24	Helio Castroneves	1:40.7349	1.3628	12	32	109.607	Honda	P	Meyer Shank Racing
25	Sting Ray Robb	1:41.1557	1.7836	29	31	109.151	Honda	P	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
26	Benjamin Pedersen	1:41.5312	2.1591	20	25	108.747	Chevy	P	AJ Foyt Enterprises
27	Kyle Kirkwood	2:01.4916	0.0000	1	1	90.880	Honda	Po	Andretti Autosport