Jimmie Johnson of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda was the first driver to set a representative lap with a 74.4011sec, and he was soon followed onto the track by Simona De Silvestro making her fourth start for Paretta Autosport-Chevrolet. She got down to 0.15sec away before pitting for the first time
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda’s David Malukas, taking advantage of the extra set of Firestone primaries for rookies, moved to the top of the times with a 72.9245sec lap of the 2.238-mile road course, half a second faster than Devlin DeFrancesco of Andretti Autosport-Honda… until DeFrancesco slipped ahead eventually getting down to 1min12.7385sec on his first run, an average of 110.764mph.
Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Christian Lundgaard, who is trying to cling onto or preferably extend his five-point lead over Malukas in the Rookie of the Year battle, edged ahead of him by 0.0765sec with his first run. Lundgaard tested at Laguna Seca for the first time two weeks ago, and admitted it was tricky, and he was off teammate Graham Rahal’s pace, but this start was impressive.
On his first flying lap, championship leader Will Power locked up his left tire at the top of the Corkscrew and took a sort-of Alex Zanardi line, causing that lap to be invalidated but he stayed out of the gravel and continued.
In his final race weekend with Andretti Autosport, Alexander Rossi’s fifth lap sent him up to second, but then Josef Newgarden topped the times with a 1min12.3512sec, before Power shaded him by a 0.0015sec, an average of 111.359mph. Three minutes later, their teammate beat them to top spot by 0.13sec and then Alex Palou, who topped the test here, moved up to second for Ganassi.
Palou’s time in P2 didn’t last long, as Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy’s Pato O’Ward delivered a time just 0.031sec slower than McLaughlin.
Colton Herta, who has taken pole and won in IndyCar’s last two visits here, grabbed third, just before the red flag flew for Jimmie Johnson crashing at Turn 6. The #48 Ganassi car twitched under braking just when he needed to be turning in and he plowed off the course. The car spun around and he hit the tire wall with his rear wing.
The session restarted with 20mins to go, and on Firestone’s new alternate compound, Simon Pagenaud delivered a 1min11.9821sec lap, an average of 111.928mph. His first challenger also on alternates was David Malukas, 0.0597sec adrift.
O’Ward’s first flyer on reds fell 0.0512sec short of Pagenaud, while McLaughlin dropped his wheels off on the drive to Turn 4 on Laps 1 and 3 of his ‘red’ run, but in between got a lap 0.1sec from the lead.
Power and Rossi moved up to second and third, although when Power tried to go faster, he clipped the sand exiting Turn 3. Callum Ilott of Juncos-Hollinger Racing, Rossi and Herta all cycle through P1 until Newgarden got it all perfect on his second lap to claim top spot by over four-tenths. His 71.4103sec was an average of 112.824mph.
Romain Grosjean got up to third, splitting Herta and Rossi, but no one was going to threaten Newgarden’s top spot on this day.
Ilott remained a highly impressive top five, just ahead of Pagenaud, Power and O’Ward.
De Silvestro ended the session 2.6441sec off the top spot, but within one second of her Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet teammates Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly.
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Josef Newgarden |
Team Penske |
18 | 1'11.4103 | 112.824 | |
| 2 | Colton Herta |
Andretti Autosport |
16 | 1'11.8266 | 0.4163 | 112.170 |
| 3 |  Romain Grosjean |
Andretti Autosport |
18 | 1'11.8697 | 0.4594 | 112.103 |
| 4 | Alexander Rossi |
Andretti Autosport |
20 | 1'11.9034 | 0.4931 | 112.050 |
| 5 |  Callum Ilott |
Juncos Hollinger Racing |
17 | 1'11.9490 | 0.5387 | 111.979 |
| 6 | Simon Pagenaud |
Meyer Shank Racing |
19 | 1'11.9821 | 0.5718 | 111.928 |
| 7 |  Will Power |
Team Penske |
21 | 1'11.9858 | 0.5755 | 111.922 |
| 8 |  Patricio O'Ward |
Arrow McLaren SP |
16 | 1'12.0333 | 0.6230 | 111.848 |
| 9 | David Malukas |
Dale Coyne Racing |
22 | 1'12.0418 | 0.6315 | 111.835 |
| 10 |  Marcus Ericsson |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
15 | 1'12.0803 | 0.6700 | 111.775 |
| 11 |  Scott McLaughlin |
Team Penske |
15 | 1'12.0877 | 0.6774 | 111.764 |
| 12 | Felix Rosenqvist |
Arrow McLaren SP |
14 | 1'12.1036 | 0.6933 | 111.739 |
| 13 |  Devlin DeFrancesco |
Andretti Autosport |
26 | 1'12.2135 | 0.8032 | 111.569 |
| 14 |  Alex Palou |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
19 | 1'12.3102 | 0.8999 | 111.420 |
| 15 |  Christian Lundgaard |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
20 | 1'12.3193 | 0.9090 | 111.406 |
| 16 |  Helio Castroneves |
Meyer Shank Racing |
22 | 1'12.3840 | 0.9737 | 111.306 |
| 17 | Scott Dixon |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
16 | 1'12.3911 | 0.9808 | 111.295 |
| 18 |  Takuma Sato |
Dale Coyne Racing |
19 | 1'12.4401 | 1.0298 | 111.220 |
| 19 | Jack Harvey |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
15 | 1'12.9774 | 1.5671 | 110.401 |
| 20 | Graham Rahal |
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing |
16 | 1'13.0487 | 1.6384 | 110.294 |
| 21 |  Rinus van Kalmthout |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
19 | 1'13.1004 | 1.6901 | 110.216 |
| 22 | Conor Daly |
Ed Carpenter Racing |
19 | 1'13.1450 | 1.7347 | 110.148 |
| 23 | Kyle Kirkwood |
A.J. Foyt Enterprises |
28 | 1'13.2761 | 1.8658 | 109.951 |
| 24 | Dalton Kellett |
A.J. Foyt Enterprises |
27 | 1'13.6331 | 2.2228 | 109.418 |
| 25 | Jimmie Johnson |
Chip Ganassi Racing |
20 | 1'13.9251 | 2.5148 | 108.986 |
| 26 |  Simona de Silvestro |
Paretta Autosport | 27 | 1'14.0544 | 2.6441 | 108.796 |
| View full results | ||||||
