The first red flag of the session was caused by Benjamin Pedersen locking up into Turn 4, the car trying to swivel left, and making hard contact with its left front wing against the wall.
The second red flag was caused by a concrete patch of the track on the exit of fifth-gear Turn 3 coming up, and needing clearing. By then the remaining three rookies – Marcus Armstrong (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda), Sting Ray Robb (Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda) and Agustin Canapino (Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet) – had laid down their first five laps, since newbies are granted an extra set of tires.
Following the red flag, most of the top drivers immediately hit the track, and 2021 Indy Lights champion Kyle Kirkwood hit top spot with a 62.6101 for Andretti Autosport-Honda.
There was then briefly a Swedish 1-2, with Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren –Chevrolet ahead of Marcus Ericsson (Ganassi), until Ericsson’s teammate, 2021 champion Alex Palou lowered the benchmark to 62.2118sec – first driver into the 104mph laps.
Kirkwood was a long way from being done, though, and delivered a 61.8019sec on his seventh lap, with teammate Romain Grosjean going second, albeit 0.3sec behind.
The third red emerged with 43mins remaining, caused by Simon Pagenaud spinning his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda into the Turn 4 escape road and then stalling.
Team Penske-Chevrolet’s defending had an alarming tail-out moment exiting the penultimate corner after damaging a right-rear toelink against a wall. That was easily fixed, and he wasted little time in moving into the top four once back on track.
Colton Herta made it in an Andretti 1-2-3 with his first representative flyer, albeit 0.2777 off Kirkwood, who had gotten his best mark down to 61.6851sec.
That left a nice hole for David Malukas to fill with his Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports-Honda to get within 0.18sec of his old Lights sparring partner Kirkwood.
With 16mins to go, Christian Lundgaard smacked the Turn 3 wall hard enough in the #45 Hy-Vee Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda to end his session early although he limped back to the pits without assistance. Teammate Graham Rahal, however, who had already gone into Turn 4 run-off and tried to change the balance of the car on pitlane, revisited the same run-off after locking up and then stalling. He drove slowly back to the pits.
Josef Newgarden had a four-wheel drift into the wall that necessitated repairs, while teammate McLaughlin had another moment at Turn 3, but not before Alex Palou delivered top time, a 61.6790sec on his 23rd lap.
With under three minutes to go, Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet’s Rinus VeeKay went third fastest, 0.1724sec off the top, with six-time champion Scott Dixon moving into fourth, and his Ganassi teammate Marcus Armstrong less than one-tenth behind. Then Dixon went fastest at 61.6145sec, a mere 0.0645 faster than Palou, with Herta managing to split them on his final flyer.
Pagenaud jumped into the top five in the closing couple of minutes too, so that the top five were covered by less than a tenth of a second.
VeeKay’s time was good enough to retain sixth as fastest Chevrolet driver, with Malukas separating him from Will Power, defending IndyCar Series champion in eighth.
Armstrong was far and away the best rookie, finishing his first official session in ninth, 0.33sec behind teammate and compatriot Dixon, but just ahead of another compatriot, McLaughlin.
Pato O’Ward nipped teammate Rosenqvist by 0.09sec, the latter surviving an alarming fishtail moment into Turn 1, while their new teammate Alexander Rossi ended the session in 21st.
Canapino ended his first ever open-wheel session an impressive 19th, albeit having been the sole driver to run a set of soft, green sidewalled Firestones. Juncos Hollinger teammate Callum Ilott was 12th.
Second practice begins at 10.00am local (Eastern) time.
Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Mph |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 29 | 1'01.6145 | 105.170 | |
2 | Colton Herta | Andretti Autosport | 25 | 1'01.6475 | 0.0330 | 105.114 |
3 | Alex Palou | Chip Ganassi Racing | 25 | 1'01.6790 | 0.0645 | 105.060 |
4 | Kyle Kirkwood | Andretti Autosport | 26 | 1'01.6851 | 0.0706 | 105.050 |
5 | Simon Pagenaud | Meyer Shank Racing | 28 | 1'01.6963 | 0.0818 | 105.031 |
6 | Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 25 | 1'01.8514 | 0.2369 | 104.767 |
7 | David Malukas | Dale Coyne Racing | 24 | 1'01.8613 | 0.2468 | 104.750 |
8 | Will Power | Team Penske | 27 | 1'01.8915 | 0.2770 | 104.699 |
9 | Marcus Armstrong | Chip Ganassi Racing | 35 | 1'01.9444 | 0.3299 | 104.610 |
10 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 26 | 1'01.9882 | 0.3737 | 104.536 |
11 | Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren | 23 | 1'02.0177 | 0.4032 | 104.486 |
12 | Callum Ilott | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 25 | 1'02.0360 | 0.4215 | 104.455 |
13 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 29 | 1'02.0733 | 0.4588 | 104.393 |
14 | Romain Grosjean | Andretti Autosport | 30 | 1'02.1064 | 0.4919 | 104.337 |
15 | Felix Rosenqvist | Arrow McLaren | 26 | 1'02.1094 | 0.4949 | 104.332 |
16 | Devlin DeFrancesco | Andretti Autosport | 26 | 1'02.2507 | 0.6362 | 104.095 |
17 | Jack Harvey | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 26 | 1'02.3236 | 0.7091 | 103.973 |
18 | Helio Castroneves | Meyer Shank Racing | 25 | 1'02.3290 | 0.7145 | 103.964 |
19 | Agustin Canapino | Juncos Hollinger Racing | 34 | 1'02.3629 | 0.7484 | 103.908 |
20 | Santino Ferrucci | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 29 | 1'02.4032 | 0.7887 | 103.841 |
21 | Alexander Rossi | Arrow McLaren | 22 | 1'02.4616 | 0.8471 | 103.744 |
22 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 17 | 1'02.5150 | 0.9005 | 103.655 |
23 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 29 | 1'02.5480 | 0.9335 | 103.600 |
24 | Ray Robb | Dale Coyne Racing | 37 | 1'02.8157 | 1.2012 | 103.159 |
25 | Christian Lundgaard | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 13 | 1'03.0412 | 1.4267 | 102.790 |
26 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 18 | 1'03.1389 | 1.5244 | 102.631 |
27 | Benjamin Pedersen | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 26 | 1'03.5134 | 1.8989 | 102.026 |
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