Barber IndyCar: Palou puts Ganassi on top in FP1

Series sophomore Palou’s #10 Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda turned a 66.4721sec lap, and Andretti Autosport-Honda’s Colton Herta fell just 0.0176sec short of displacing him, with Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Josef Newgarden – a three-time Barber winner – just 0.006sec further back.

Palou commented: "It feels amazing to be back racing and I love this place. It’s only FP1 but it’s the best way to start, so very happy.”

The top four were all under the qualifying lap record, this being the first official session to be held on the track that was resurfaced in the winter of 2019/’20.

Ganassi's six-time and reigning champion Scott Dixon should have been P1, but his best time was deleted as a red flag had flown when his erstwhile teammate Felix Rosenqvist had an embarrassingly slow shunt in his Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet.

With just under 10mins to go, the Swede understeered into the barrier on pitlane as he attempted to negotiate the downhill lefthander while applying his pitspeed limiter. He would still finish the session classified 10^th, albeit five places behind teammate Pato O’Ward.

Fastest rookie was Penske’s Scott McLaughlin in eighth, who was just 0.015sec adrift of two-time Barber winner Will Power, but ahead of the third Ganassi car of Marcus Ericsson.

Romain Grosjean was around half a second slower than his Dale Coyne Racing-Honda teammate Ed Jones, finishing up the session in 21^st.

NASCAR legend but IndyCar rookie Jimmie Johnson, along with Graham Rahal, turned the most laps of the session – 22 – and although he wound up last, he was within 1.5sec of his pacesetting teammate Palou, and only 0.1855sec slower than the next slowest, Max Chilton of Carlin-Chevrolet.

Second practice begins at 1.40pm local (Central) time.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	10	Alex Palou	1:06.4721	0.000	0.000	10	18	124.564	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	26	Colton Herta	1:06.4897	0.0176	0.0176	6	16	124.531	Honda	Andretti Autosport
3	2	Josef Newgarden	1:06.4957	0.0236	0.0060	6	14	124.519	Chevy	Team Penske
4	9	Scott Dixon	1:06.5524	0.0803	0.0567	6	12	124.413	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
5	5	Pato O'Ward	1:06.6281	0.1560	0.0757	6	11	124.272	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
6	27	Alexander Rossi	1:06.6307	0.1586	0.0026	10	14	124.267	Honda	Andretti Autosport
7	12	Will Power	1:06.7341	0.2620	0.1034	6	16	124.074	Chevy	Team Penske
8	3	Scott McLaughlin	1:06.7499	0.2778	0.0158	11	17	124.045	Chevy	Team Penske
9	8	Marcus Ericsson	1:06.7999	0.3278	0.0500	8	18	123.952	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
10	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:06.8435	0.3714	0.0436	10	10	123.871	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
11	20	Conor Daly	1:06.8699	0.3978	0.0264	5	17	123.823	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
12	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1:06.8777	0.4056	0.0078	10	14	123.808	Honda	Andretti Autosport
13	18	Ed Jones	1:07.0575	0.5854	0.1798	11	16	123.476	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
14	29	James Hinchcliffe	1:07.1072	0.6351	0.0497	9	15	123.385	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
15	14	Sebastien Bourdais	1:07.2310	0.7589	0.1238	9	12	123.157	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
16	22	Simon Pagenaud	1:07.2324	0.7603	0.0014	9	18	123.155	Chevy	Team Penske
17	60	Jack Harvey	1:07.2485	0.7764	0.0161	11	17	123.125	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
18	15	Graham Rahal	1:07.3100	0.8379	0.0615	11	22	123.013	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
19	21	Rinus VeeKay	1:07.3157	0.8436	0.0057	7	17	123.003	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
20	30	Takuma Sato	1:07.5349	1.0628	0.2192	6	18	122.603	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
21	51	Romain Grosjean	1:07.5534	1.0813	0.0185	7	19	122.570	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/Rick Ware Racing
22	4	Dalton Kellett	1:07.7276	1.2555	0.1742	10	17	122.254	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
23	59	Max Chilton	1:07.7654	1.2933	0.0378	6	16	122.186	Chevy	Carlin
24	48	Jimmie Johnson	1:07.9509	1.4788	0.1855	16	22	121.853	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing