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David Malsher-Lopez

IndyCar GP Indy: O’Ward sets the pace in second practice

Early in the session, there were two red flags for sandtrap visits by Dalton Kellett of AJ Foyt Racing-Chevrolet and Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Jimmie Johnson.

Jack Harvey, driving the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda at the only venue where he scored his first and so far sole podium, was the first driver to set a time on the Firestone softer alternate tires, lapping the 2.439-mile 14-turn track in 1min10.0971sec. That put him 0.675sec ahead of the fastest driver on primaries at that time, Colton Herta in the Andretti Autosport-Honda.

Then Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet’s Felix Rosenqvist, who took pole here in 2019, shaved 0.0426sec off that to claim top spot for not even half a minute before defending GP Indy winner Rinus VeeKay ducked into the 69s with a 69.9265sec lap. Rosenqvist was further displaced by Christian Lundgaard, who startled everyone on his debut here last year, with fourth on the grid for the second Indy road course race of the season, in August.

Will Power, five-time pole-sitter and five-time winner on this track, slotted into fourth temporarily, but then Alex Palou of Ganassi and Pato O’Ward in the second AMSP entry delivered their best laps of the weekend so far to take the top two slots.

On alternates, Romain Grosjean looked the best of the Andretti Autosport-Hondas, taking fifth ahead of the second ECR-Chevy of local boy Conor Daly. Then his teammate and rival Colton Herta jumped into third, 0.06sec behind former Indy Lights teammate O’Ward.

That’s the way it remained, with O’Ward setting a 69.7839sec/125.823mph lap, 0.0298sec ahead of Palou, with Herta and VeeKay also in the 69s.

Lundgaard reported that his RLL-Honda felt “fantastic” and ended up fifth quickest.

Simon Pagenaud, a three-time winner here, drove his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda into ninth ahead of former Penske teammate Power who completed the top 10, 0.007sec ahead of Scott McLaughlin.

Juan Pablo Montoya, who tomorrow will make his first roadcourse IndyCar start since this event last year, was 1.2sec off the pace in the third Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy, while fellow Colombian Tatiana Calderon showed some progress, winding up just 0.8sec off Indy Lights champion teammate Kyle Kirkwood.

Qualifying begins at 4.00pm local (Eastern) time.

P

Name

FTime

Diff

FL

Laps

FSpeed

Engine

Tire

Team

1

Pato O'Ward

1:09.7839

 

14

18

125.823

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren SP

2

Alex Palou

1:09.8137

0.0298

19

25

125.769

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

3

Colton Herta

1:09.8423

0.0584

15

19

125.718

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport

4

Rinus VeeKay

1:09.9265

0.1426

13

19

125.566

Chevy

A

Ed Carpenter Racing

5

Christian Lundgaard

1:10.0002

0.2163

17

22

125.434

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

6

Romain Grosjean

1:10.0161

0.2322

14

19

125.405

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport

7

Conor Daly

1:10.0395

0.2556

16

20

125.364

Chevy

A

Ed Carpenter Racing

8

Felix Rosenqvist

1:10.0545

0.2706

12

18

125.337

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren SP

9

Simon Pagenaud

1:10.0562

0.2723

16

20

125.334

Honda

A

Meyer Shank Racing

10

Will Power

1:10.0632

0.2793

15

21

125.321

Chevy

A

Team Penske

11

Scott McLaughlin

1:10.0794

0.2955

18

24

125.292

Chevy

A

Team Penske

12

Jack Harvey

1:10.0971

0.3132

12

19

125.261

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

13

Marcus Ericsson

1:10.1436

0.3597

18

23

125.177

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

14

Graham Rahal

1:10.2166

0.4327

18

22

125.047

Honda

A

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

15

Josef Newgarden

1:10.2617

0.4778

7

12

124.967

Chevy

A

Team Penske

16

Takuma Sato

1:10.2685

0.4846

17

18

124.955

Honda

A

Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

17

Alexander Rossi

1:10.2692

0.4853

15

19

124.954

Honda

A

Andretti Autosport

18

Helio Castroneves

1:10.2712

0.4873

12

17

124.950

Honda

A

Meyer Shank Racing

19

Callum Ilott

1:10.4747

0.6908

19

19

124.589

Chevy

A

Juncos Hollinger Racing

20

Scott Dixon

1:10.5045

0.7206

20

24

124.537

Honda

A

Chip Ganassi Racing

21

Kyle Kirkwood

1:10.5316

0.7477

19

20

124.489

Chevy

A

AJ Foyt Enterprises

22

Devlin DeFrancesco

1:10.5521

0.7682

16

21

124.453

Honda

A

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

23

David Malukas

1:10.7052

0.9213

14

17

124.183

Honda

P

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

24

Juan Pablo Montoya

1:11.0173

1.2334

6

9

123.637

Chevy

A

Arrow McLaren SP

25

Dalton Kellett

1:11.2065

1.4226

13

16

123.309

Chevy

A

AJ Foyt Enterprises

26

Tatiana Calderon

1:11.3938

1.6099

14

19

122.985

Chevy

A

AJ Foyt Enterprises

27

Jimmie Johnson

1:11.6939

1.9100

8

22

122.471

Honda

A

 

 

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