At the start, Arrow McLaren SP’s polesitter Felix Rosenqvist led away from Rossi, while Penske’s Josef Newgarden made a brilliant inside maneuver to leap up from fifth into third. Herta made an even bolder maneuver from ninth up the outside of Turn 1 which squeezed Power into Pato O’Ward, spinning the second AMSP car and obliging Power to stand on the brakes and lose a ton of places, like O’Ward.
The first lap ended with Rosenqvist leading Rossi, Newgarden and Herta up from ninth, followed by Christian Lundgaard (RLL), Conor Daly, Devlin DeFrancesco and Palou.
