IndyCar GP Indy: O’Ward leads first practice, RLL star

Inevitably the rookies hit the track first, using their extra set of Firestone primaries, but then it was the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team who sprung to the fore, with first Christian Lundgaard and then Jack Harvey hitting the top of the times. Harvey, who scored his only IndyCar podium on the 2.439-mile road course in 2019, lapped the course in 1m10.4121s, an average speed of 124.700mph.

Harvey’s time was shaded by 2021 champion Alex Palou in Chip Ganassi Racing’s #10 and then CGR’s six-time champ Scott Dixon, but he remained third. Palou lowered his time on primaries to 1m10.2689. Behind Harvey was 2021 IMS roadcourse winner Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing, chased by Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Will Power.

With 12 minutes to go, the times started to tumble as drivers tried out their sets of Firestone alternates, with Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren sandwiching the RLL cars of Lundgaard and Harvey, chased by Power and VeeKay. O’Ward’s benchmark was 1m09.4981s, an average of 126.340mph.

Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson bounced into the top six with five minutes remaining, while Alex Palou went third fastest.

McLaughlin improved to fourth, as teammate Newgarden was late leaving on reds due to an apparent clutch problem.

Colton Herta was unable to set a representative time, as his new Honda unit started smoking on his first installation lap at the start of the session and he returned to the garage. The team just got him out for another installation lap in the final two minutes.

Second practice begins at 1.00pm local (Eastern) time.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Tire	Team
1	Pato O'Ward	1:09.4981	1:09.4981	14	16	126.340	Chevy	A	Arrow McLaren
2	Christian Lundgaard	1:09.4988	0.0007	26	31	126.339	Honda	A	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
3	Alex Palou	1:09.5213	0.0232	19	22	126.298	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing
4	Scott McLaughlin	1:09.5465	0.0484	21	21	126.252	Chevy	A	Team Penske
5	Jack Harvey	1:09.5976	0.0995	17	20	126.160	Honda	A	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
6	Felix Rosenqvist	1:09.7152	0.2171	15	19	125.947	Chevy	A	Arrow McLaren
7	Marcus Ericsson	1:09.7706	0.2725	17	18	125.847	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing
8	Scott Dixon	1:09.7811	0.2830	20	21	125.828	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	Will Power	1:09.9494	0.4513	19	23	125.525	Chevy	A	Team Penske
10	Rinus VeeKay	1:09.9595	0.4614	17	21	125.507	Chevy	A	Ed Carpenter Racing
11	Marcus Armstrong	1:09.9771	0.4790	27	30	125.475	Honda	A	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	Kyle Kirkwood	1:09.9802	0.4821	19	21	125.470	Honda	A	Andretti Autosport
13	Graham Rahal	1:10.0010	0.5029	21	22	125.432	Honda	A	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
14	Conor Daly	1:10.0138	0.5157	21	23	125.410	Chevy	A	Ed Carpenter Racing
15	Josef Newgarden	1:10.0681	0.5700	21	22	125.312	Chevy	A	Team Penske
16	Romain Grosjean	1:10.0800	0.5819	20	24	125.291	Honda	A	Andretti Autosport
17	Alexander Rossi	1:10.1417	0.6436	19	21	125.181	Chevy	A	Arrow McLaren
18	Simon Pagenaud	1:10.1975	0.6994	21	24	125.081	Honda	A	Meyer Shank Racing
19	David Malukas	1:10.2324	0.7343	18	19	125.019	Honda	A	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
20	Sting Ray Robb	1:10.3928	0.8947	24	26	124.734	Honda	A	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
21	Callum Ilott	1:10.4085	0.9104	16	21	124.707	Chevy	A	Juncos Hollinger Racing
22	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:10.4150	0.9169	21	24	124.695	Honda	A	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
23	Helio Castroneves	1:10.5015	1.0034	14	16	124.542	Honda	A	Meyer Shank Racing
24	Santino Ferrucci	1:10.6467	1.1486	19	19	124.286	Chevy	A	AJ Foyt Enterprises
25	Benjamin Pedersen	1:10.7691	1.2710	28	31	124.071	Chevy	A	AJ Foyt Enterprises
26	Agustin Canapino	1:10.9736	1.4755	26	27	123.714	Chevy	A	Juncos Holling Racing
27	Colton Herta	No Time	---	1	1	---	Honda	P	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian