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Autosport
Autosport
Sport
David Malsher-Lopez

IndyCar Texas: McLaughlin heads O'Ward in opening practice

McLaughlin's best effort pipped Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward by 0.0238s around the 1.5 mile oval, with O'Ward's team-mate Alexander Rossi third fastest.

In the cool of the morning and with IndyCar having allowed extra downforce components this weekend, and drivers able to catch some strong tows, speeds looked startlingly good.

McLaughlin, who qualified and finished second in last year’s IndyCar round at TMS, was swiftly up to speed, clocking a 223.747mph lap in the #3 Team Penske entry, which equates to 23.169s around the 1.5-mile oval in Fort Worth.

Chevrolet looked strong at this stage, with O’Ward and Rossi also turning 223mph laps in their Arrow McLarens to run second and third, ahead of Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport.

Josef Newgarden, Team Penske Chevrolet (Photo by: Phillip Abbott / Motorsport Images)

Josef Newgarden, Penske’s defending Texas winner, was also looking strong, just ahead of Takuma Sato – in his first outing for Chip Ganassi Racing – and Ganassi’s five-time Texas winner, Scott Dixon.

Dixon briefly vaulted his part-time team-mate but then Sato moved up to fifth, second fastest Honda driver, before pitting.

Also impressing at this stage was rookie Benjamin Pedersen, who with 15 minutes remaining, was in 11th for local team, AJ Foyt Racing. He eventually fell to 18th, but team-mate Santino Ferrucci took 12th.

With 12 minutes to go, Felix Rosenqvist, last year’s Texas polesitter, made it three Arrow McLarens in the top five. Then with under five minutes to go, series sophomore Callum Ilott sprung his Juncos Hollinger Racing entry into sixth, until Devlin DeFrancesco pushed him down with fifth best time.

The next time the cars are on track will be 11.15am local (Central) time for qualifying. There will then be a “high-line” practice to try and open up more grooves for tomorrow’s race, followed by an hour’s final practice.

Results: Practice 1 

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 40 23.1690   223.747
2 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 32 23.1928 0.0238 223.518
3 United States Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren 34 23.1980 0.0290 223.468
4 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport 35 23.2135 0.0445 223.318
5 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 34 23.2232 0.0542 223.225
6 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren 50 23.2557 0.0867 222.913
7 United Kingdom Callum Ilott United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 44 23.2586 0.0896 222.885
8 Japan Takuma Sato United States Chip Ganassi Racing 43 23.2665 0.0975 222.810
9 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 24 23.3005 0.1315 222.484
10 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 34 23.3205 0.1515 222.294
11 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 47 23.3474 0.1784 222.038
12 United States Santino Ferrucci United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 37 23.3516 0.1826 221.998
13 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 37 23.3638 0.1948 221.882
14 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 33 23.3792 0.2102 221.736
15 United States David Malukas United States Dale Coyne Racing 39 23.3798 0.2108 221.730
16 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 36 23.3873 0.2183 221.659
17 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 35 23.3949 0.2259 221.587
18 Denmark Benjamin Pedersen United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 38 23.4054 0.2364 221.487
19 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 36 23.4907 0.3217 220.683
20 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 38 23.5082 0.3392 220.519
21 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 33 23.5164 0.3474 220.442
22 Ray Robb United States Dale Coyne Racing 41 23.5230 0.3540 220.380
23 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States Andretti Autosport 38 23.5449 0.3759 220.175
24 Argentina Agustin Canapino United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 30 23.5452 0.3762 220.172
25 United States Ed Carpenter United States Ed Carpenter Racing 29 23.5610 0.3920 220.025
26 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 45 23.6066 0.4376 219.600
27 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 40 23.6121 0.4431 219.548
28 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 42 24.0019 0.8329 215.983
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