IndyCar Detroit: Palou leads O'Ward in opening practice

Palou, winner in Detroit last year, propelled his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to a flying lap of 1m01.7210s on the softer alternate tires to set the pace in the session.

The quick lap came during the first group and rookies segment, which came in the 15 minutes after the all-cars portion.

“It was busy,” Palou said. “I went to visit the runoff areas a couple of times here and there; just trying to find the limit and the grip of the track.

“[The] track is grippier; grippier than last year. I think we were only like two seconds faster than when we did practice one last year. Pretty happy. The car feels good so far.

“Obviously, we have still half of a grid to run those alternates but yeah, pretty happy.”

Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, fresh off a heartbreaking runner-up spot in the Indianapolis 500 last weekend, ended up second overall on the timesheets – first in the split cars second group – at 0.0105s behind Palou's leading effort.

Colton Herta switched off the harder compound late in the group running from the all cars segment but had enough pace to end up third overall, nipping Andretti Global team-mate Kyle Kirkwood late with a lap of 1m01.7968s (0.0758s behind Palou).

Kirkwood managed to make a late jump in the first group to vault to fourth overall at only 0.0893s behind.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin was fifth, ahead of team-mate and recently crowned two-time Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden in sixth.

Colton Herta, Andretti Global w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda (Photo by: Geoffrey M. Miller / Motorsport Images)

Santino Ferrucci ended seventh in the #14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Armstrong in eighth. Team Penske’s Will Power was ninth, with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard taking the final spot of the top 10.

One of the two red flags came out with six minutes left in the first group of the split cars session, after Ed Carpenter Racing rookie Christian Rasmussen stalled off course while running ahead of Palou. He was handed a five-minute time penalty as a result.

The second was with the biggest, and only, shunt, which happened in the second group and rookies portion of the split cars segment, with Dale Coyne Racing’s Jack Harvey making contact with the inside wall of Turn 7 and pounded the outside wall at the corner’s exit. The damage was severe as the right-front was destroyed and he was forced to step out of the car. He was running 26th out of 27 cars at the time of the incident.

When the opening 45 minutes ‘all cars’ segment began, it was Christian Lundgaard setting the early pace and holding it for the initial 16 minutes. The Dane rolled around the 1.645-mile, nine-turn temporary street circuit in the heart of Motor City with a stout lap of 1m03.6125s on the harder primary compound.

However, it wasn’t long before Herta jumped to the top with a run of 1m03.0957s as the running order or the top five became a revolving door.

Palou responded with a 1m02.7778s lap, but only temporarily as Herta responded with a 1m02.0219s to return back to the top spot at the 20-minute mark. He held the time for the rest of the segment that was solely run on the harder primary tyre compound.

Power did go to second with a lap of 1m02.4474s, which was 0.4255s off the mark set by Herta.

There were multiple drivers that went off, with Turn 8 causing trouble for the likes of Dixon, Kirkwood, Lundgaard, O’Ward, Palou and Alexander Rossi.

During a stack up near the end of the segment, Kirkwood was tagged in the right-rear by Newgarden going into Turn 6. There was slight cosmetic damage to the front wing of Newgarden, but both continued without issue.

IndyCar Detroit GP - FP1 results

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information
Cla	Driver	#	Laps	Time	Interval	Mph
1	A. Palou Chip Ganassi Racing	10	31	1'01.7210		95.948
2	P. O'Ward Arrow McLaren	5	30	+0.0105 1'01.7315	0.0105	95.932
3	C. Herta Andretti Global with Curb-Agajanian	26	31	+0.0758 1'01.7968	0.0653	95.830
4	K. Kirkwood Andretti Global	27	20	+0.0893 1'01.8103	0.0135	95.809
5	S. McLaughlin Team Penske	3	33	+0.3749 1'02.0959	0.2856	95.369
6	J. Newgarden Team Penske	2	32	+0.5167 1'02.2377	0.1418	95.151
7	S. Ferrucci A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	32	+0.6067 1'02.3277	0.0900	95.014
8	M. Armstrong Chip Ganassi Racing	11	30	+0.7097 1'02.4307	0.1030	94.857
9	W. Power Team Penske	12	30	+0.7264 1'02.4474	0.0167	94.832
10	C. Lundgaard Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	45	31	+0.7516 1'02.4726	0.0252	94.794
11	A. Canapino Juncos Hollinger Racing	78	31	+0.8483 1'02.5693	0.0967	94.647
12	S. Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing	9	26	+0.9797 1'02.7007	0.1314	94.449
13	G. Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	35	+1.0025 1'02.7235	0.0228	94.414
14	M. Ericsson Andretti Global	28	34	+1.0305 1'02.7515	0.0280	94.372
15	A. Rossi Arrow McLaren	7	30	+1.1327 1'02.8537	0.1022	94.219
16	F. Rosenqvist Meyer Shank Racing	60	30	+1.1820 1'02.9030	0.0493	94.145
17	P. Fittipaldi Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30	34	+1.2027 1'02.9237	0.0207	94.114
18	C. Rasmussen Ed Carpenter Racing	20	38	+1.2263 1'02.9473	0.0236	94.079
19	R. Grosjean Juncos Hollinger Racing	77	29	+1.3015 1'03.0225	0.0752	93.966
20	T. Pourchaire Arrow McLaren	6	39	+1.3932 1'03.1142	0.0917	93.830
21	K. Simpson Chip Ganassi Racing	4	42	+1.4291 1'03.1501	0.0359	93.777
22	H. Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing	66	30	+1.5121 1'03.2331	0.0830	93.653
23	R. van Kalmthout Ed Carpenter Racing	21	34	+1.5985 1'03.3195	0.0864	93.526
24	R. Robb A.J. Foyt Enterprises	41	30	+1.7786 1'03.4996	0.1801	93.260
25	L. Lundqvist Chip Ganassi Racing	8	40	+1.8554 1'03.5764	0.0768	93.148
26	J. Harvey Dale Coyne Racing	18	25	+2.5448 1'04.2658	0.6894	92.149
27	T. Vautier Dale Coyne Racing	51	34	+2.9004 1'04.6214	0.3556	91.641
View full results