IndyCar GP Indy: Palou fastest in first practice

The session was red flagged with just 1min38sec left of the guaranteed 45min time, as Helio Castroneves spun his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda at Turn 13, just after setting his fastest lap of the morning.

When the session restarted, it looked unlikely that anyone could get their tires up to temperature soon enough to make a difference to the fastest times, but Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda pair Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson strapped on new tires to suddenly burst into first and sixth respectively.

Rookies are granted an extra set of tires in the opening session, but Ilott used them wisely, and with three minutes to go in the session, sneaked ahead of Power by 0.0684sec to claim what was then fastest time. The Briton lapped the 2.439-mile 14-turn road course in 1min10.4593sec, an average speed of 124.617mph.

Power, who has five wins and five pole positions on the Indianapolis road course, set his fastest time on the 10^th of 17 laps.

Graham Rahal was second quickest of the Honda drivers, slotting his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry into fourth ahead of the quicker of the two Arrow McLaren SP-Chevys, that of Felix Rosenqvist, who scored his first IndyCar pole at this venue in his rookie season of 2019.

Simon Pagenaud, who has won here three times, was seventh fastest ahead of Jack Harvey of RLL, who scored his (so far) only IndyCar podium at this track in the wet in 2019.

Colton Herta was quickest of the Andretti Autosport-Hondas, but down in 10^th, a hair quicker than AMSP’s winner of the previous round, Pato O’Ward.

The Ed Carpenter Racing pairing of Conor Daly and Rinus VeeKay were languishing down in 19^th and 21^st, a surprise given that the Dutch youngster won this race last year.

Jimmie Johnson was only 1.2sec off the ultimate pace, on a track where he first tested an IndyCar, and he was ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in the third AMSP-Chevy.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	Alex Palou	1:10.4555		18	18	124.623	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	Callum Ilott	1:10.4593	0.0038	16	19	124.617	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
3	Will Power	1:10.5277	0.0722	10	17	124.496	Chevy	Team Penske
4	Graham Rahal	1:10.6125	0.1570	14	16	124.346	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
5	Felix Rosenqvist	1:10.7108	0.2553	5	15	124.173	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
6	Marcus Ericsson	1:10.7123	0.2568	18	18	124.171	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
7	Simon Pagenaud	1:10.7459	0.2904	5	13	124.112	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
8	Jack Harvey	1:10.7817	0.3262	11	15	124.049	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
9	Helio Castroneves	1:10.7911	0.3356	13	13	124.033	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
10	Colton Herta	1:10.8352	0.3797	8	15	123.955	Honda	Andretti Autosport
11	Pato O'Ward	1:10.8584	0.4029	9	12	123.915	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
12	Romain Grosjean	1:10.8597	0.4042	9	17	123.912	Honda	Andretti Autosport
13	Scott Dixon	1:10.8632	0.4077	4	18	123.906	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
14	Christian Lundgaard	1:10.8853	0.4298	3	17	123.868	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
15	Alexander Rossi	1:10.8906	0.4351	4	17	123.858	Honda	Andretti Autosport
16	Josef Newgarden	1:10.9343	0.4788	4	17	123.782	Chevy	Team Penske
17	Scott McLaughlin	1:10.9543	0.4988	15	15	123.747	Chevy	Team Penske
18	David Malukas	1:10.9703	0.5148	17	20	123.719	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
19	Conor Daly	1:11.0008	0.5453	9	15	123.666	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
20	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:11.0064	0.5509	15	18	123.656	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
21	Rinus VeeKay	1:11.0720	0.6165	12	13	123.542	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
22	Takuma Sato	1:11.1887	0.7332	10	15	123.340	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
23	Kyle Kirkwood	1:11.5867	1.1312	15	16	122.654	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
24	Jimmie Johnson	1:11.6603	1.2048	19	22	122.528	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
25	Juan Pablo Montoya	1:12.0074	1.5519	5	14	121.937	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
26	Dalton Kellett	1:12.2094	1.7539	4	18	121.596	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
27	Tatiana Calderon	1:12.4361	1.9806	5	11	121.216	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises