Ericsson leads third IndyCar test session at Thermal

Ericsson, fresh from receiving his ‘Baby Borg’ from BorgWarner Inc. in honor of his 2022 Indy 500 triumph, took only four laps of the 3.076-mile 17-turn track to lower the IndyCar lap record at the venue to 1min38.4223sec, an average speed of 112.182mph.

But Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda’s Christian Lundgaard, who was second quickest in yesterday afternoon’s session, also delivered a 112mph effort to claim second fastest, albeit 0.1459sec slower.

Kyle Kirkwood, who replaces Alexander Rossi in Andretti Autosport-Honda’s line-up for 2023, was fastest representative for Michael Andretti’s squad, 0.3662sec off top spot.

Team Penske’s two-time and reigning champion Will Power left it until the dying minutes to punch in Chevrolet’s best time of the session, shading teammate Scott McLaughlin by a mere 0.035sec.

Felix Rosenqvist was top representative for Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet, but as he did twice yesterday, the Swede spun and stalled , bringing out a red flag that ended the session slightly early. His teammate Pato O’Ward also caused a red with a spin, as did Andretti Autosport’s Devlin DeFrancesco, while new third Arrow McLaren driver Alexander Rossi turned the most laps, 38, on his way to 11^th.

Six-time champion Scott Dixon was seventh for Ganassi, just ahead of teammate Alex Palou, while Callum Ilott again impressed for Juncos Hollinger-Chevrolet in ninth, just 0.0047sec ahead of the third Penske of Newgarden.

Yesterday’s pacesetter Colton Herta was only 14^th, while fastest rookie was Marcus Armstrong (Ganassi) in 16^th, splitting the Meyer Shank Racing-Hondas of Simon Pagenaud and Helio Castroneves.

Juncos Hollinger’s second driver, touring car ace Agustin Canapino, was again impressive, within one second of team leader Ilott, and ahead of Graham Rahal and Conor Daly.

The next session will begin at 1.30pm local time and will run until 4.00pm, when, as per yesterday, the teams will commence pitstop practice.