Barber IndyCar: Palou puts Ganassi on top in FP1
The opening session of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season saw Alex Palou lay down a new track record at Barber Motorsports Park to top the times in practice for the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama.
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 10th, 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 21st.
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 |
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About this article
| Series | IndyCar |
| Event | Birmingham |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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