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IndyCar Long Beach: O’Ward leads Power in opening practice

The Mexican delivered a quick run of 1m06.6874s in Group 1 running on a set of softer alternate tires to set the day’s best time.

Team Penske’s Will Power, who was best in the second group, delivered a mighty effort of his own with the lap of 1m06.7811s that led the group and ultimately put him second overall.

The rest of the top five in overall times between all segments featured Scott McLaughlin in third (+ 0.1384s), followed by Felix Rosenqvist (+ 0.1726) and Josef Newgarden (+ 0.2102)

Group 1 – 10 minutes

Christian Lundgaard held the top spot briefly before setting in third at 0.3981s behind in the No. 45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. However, he was dethroned moments later by O’Ward and then Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist by 0.1726s.

Rookie Christian Rasmussen was able to run 0.5899s off O’Ward’s mark to end up fourth in the opening group in the No. 20 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet.

Juncos Racing’s Agustin Canapino was fifth-fastest in the group, but 0.6994s behind the top mark set by O’Ward.

Group 2 – 10 minutes

McLaughlin wheeled his No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet to a fast lap of 1m06.8258.

Moments later, though, Power was able to hustle to within 0.0169s of his Team Penske team-mate and then, in the final seconds, hurdled him to a run at 1m06.7811s to lead the group.

Newgarden climbed to third in the group with a final push at the end to make it a Team Penske 1-2-3 in the second group.

Reigning and two-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou concluded the segment fourth.

One of the two incidents in the group began with Dale Coyne Racing rookie Nolan Siegel, who locked up in Turn 9 and ended up in the runoff area with six minutes left, losing valuable time until finally getting back out nearly two minutes later.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s rookie, Kyffin Simpson, brought out the red flag with just under two minutes to go after locking up and going into the runoff area Turn 9. He made a similar incident in the last minute of the 45-minute all cars segment to also bring out a red flag.

All cars 45-minute segment

The opening 45 minutes saw the entire field out pounding laps on the 11-turn, 1.968-mile temporary street circuit.

Andretti Global’s Colton Herta set the early pace with a 1m07.4217s lap, trading the top spot with Team Penske’s Will Power on multiple occasions.

However, McLaughlin vaulted to the top of the leaderboard with three minutes remaining in the opening 45 minutes after hitting a flying lap of 1m07.3709s.

Rosenqvist backed up his strong showing on the Streets of St. Petersburg by ending up fourth, ahead of O’Ward in fifth.

Reigning Formula 2 champion Theo Pouchaire, who is making his debut this weekend in the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet substituting for the injured David Malukas, was patient with the throttle in his first official laps in the opening 10 minutes. It didn’t take long, though, for him to build up some competitive pace, logging 18 laps with a best of 1m08.9118s (23rd in the segment) by the end of the full field running.

The entirety of the running saw Pourchaire log a session most 35 laps, ending up 21st overall in all segments after an outright best lap of 1m08.2857s, which came in Group 2 running.

A few drivers encountered issues, including defending race winner Kyle Kirkwood. He was rolling out of Turn 9 with roughly 25 minutes remaining when he slowed and opted to abandon the hairpin and dipped behind the break of the wall entering Turn 10 to escape to pit lane. Software issues were suspected on his No. 27 Andretti Global Honda as there was mention of him struggling to downshift to first gear.

Rookie Tom Blomqvist was forced to wait on his car arriving nearly 20 minutes after the start of practice, with his No. 66 Meyer Shank Racing Honda hit with throttle position sensor problem that required attention.

Cla Driver  Car / Engine   Time   Gap   Laps 
5 Patricio O'Ward Dallara/Chevrolet 1'06.6874   20
12 Will Power Dallara/Chevrolet 1'06.7811 0.0937 27
3 Scott McLaughlin Dallara/Chevrolet 1'06.8258 0.1384 22
60 Felix Rosenqvist Dallara/Honda 1'06.8600 0.1726 21
2 Josef Newgarden Dallara/Chevrolet 1'06.8976 0.2102 20
10 Alex Palou Dallara/Honda 1'06.9056 0.2182 22
45 C.Lundgaard Dallara/Honda 1'07.0855 0.3981 23
7 Alexander Rossi Dallara/Chevrolet 1'07.1448 0.4574 19
27 Kyle Kirkwood Dallara/Honda 1'07.2445 0.5571 17
10  20 C.Rasmussen Dallara/Chevrolet 1'07.2773 0.5899 34
11  78 Agustín Canapino Dallara/Chevrolet 1'07.3868 0.6994 25
12  26 Colton Herta Dallara/Honda 1'07.4217 0.7343 24
13  15 Graham Rahal Dallara/Honda 1'07.4445 0.7571 20
14  21 R.van Kalmthout Dallara/Chevrolet 1'07.5718 0.8844 27
15  9 Scott Dixon Dallara/Honda 1'07.6382 0.9508 24
16  11 Marcus Armstrong Dallara/Honda 1'07.9303 1.2429 21
17  18 Jack Harvey Dallara/Honda 1'07.9692 1.2818 20
18  28 Marcus Ericsson Dallara/Honda 1'08.0163 1.3289 23
19  77 Romain Grosjean Dallara/Chevrolet 1'08.0655 1.3781 14
20  30 P.Fittipaldi Dallara/Honda 1'08.1203 1.4329 35
21  6 Théo Pourchaire Dallara/Chevrolet 1'08.2857 1.5983 35
22  8 Linus Lundqvist Dallara/Honda 1'08.3261 1.6387 34
23  51 Nolan Siegel Dallara/Honda 1'08.5015 1.8141 33
24  66 Tom Blomqvist Dallara/Honda 1'08.5840 1.8966 13
25  4 Kyffin Simpson Dallara/Honda 1'08.6917 2.0043 30
26  14 Santino Ferrucci Dallara/Chevrolet 1'08.8257 2.1383 15
27  41 Sting Ray Robb Dallara/Chevrolet 1'08.8727 2.1853 14
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