Testing report
IndyCar The Thermal Club Testing February testing
Ericsson leads third IndyCar test session at Thermal
Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Marcus Ericsson topped the 2hr30min morning session on Day 2 at Thermal Club, leading the again impressive fellow Scandinavian Christian Lundgaard.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Feb 3, 2023, 9:52 PM
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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 11th.
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 14th, while fastest rookie was Marcus Armstrong (Ganassi) in 16th, 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.
P
Name
FTime
Diff
FL
Laps
FSpeed
Engine
Team
1
Marcus Ericsson
1:38.4223
1:38.4223
4
16
112.182
Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing
2
Christian Lundgaard
1:38.5682
0.1459
7
29
112.016
Honda
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
3
Kyle Kirkwood
1:38.7885
0.3662
7
36
111.766
Honda
Andretti Autosport
4
Will Power
1:38.8702
0.4479
24
24
111.674
Chevy
Team Penske
5
Scott McLaughlin
1:38.9052
0.4829
33
34
111.634
Chevy
Team Penske
6
Felix Rosenqvist
1:38.9410
0.5187
4
30
111.594
Chevy
Arrow McLaren
7
Scott Dixon
1:38.9762
0.5539
9
29
111.554
Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing
8
Alex Palou
1:38.9872
0.5649
23
24
111.542
Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing
9
Callum Ilott
1:39.0254
0.6031
20
21
111.499
Chevy
Juncos Hollinger Racing
10
Josef Newgarden
1:39.0301
0.6078
29
29
111.493
Chevy
Team Penske
11
Alexander Rossi
1:39.0913
0.6690
38
38
111.425
Chevy
Arrow McLaren
12
Romain Grosjean
1:39.0944
0.6721
9
23
111.421
Honda
Andretti Autosport
13
Pato O'Ward
1:39.1486
0.7263
7
24
111.360
Chevy
Arrow McLaren
14
Colton Herta
1:39.2164
0.7941
10
29
111.284
Honda
Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
15
Simon Pagenaud
1:39.3034
0.8811
24
27
111.187
Honda
Meyer Shank Racing
16
Marcus Armstrong
1:39.3185
0.8962
11
31
111.170
Honda
Chip Ganassi Racing
17
Helio Castroneves
1:39.3803
0.9580
14
23
111.100
Honda
Meyer Shank Racing
18
David Malukas
1:39.3834
0.9611
22
34
111.097
Honda
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
19
Devlin DeFrancesco
1:39.5308
1.1085
16
24
110.932
Honda
Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
20
Jack Harvey
1:39.6960
1.2737
14
27
110.749
Honda
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
21
Rinus VeeKay
1:39.8912
1.4689
27
38
110.532
Chevy
Ed Carpenter Racing
22
Santino Ferrucci
1:39.9366
1.5143
16
16
110.482
Chevy
AJ Foyt Enterprises
23
Agustin Canapino
1:39.9583
1.5360
10
24
110.458
Chevy
Juncos Holling Racing
24
Graham Rahal
1:40.1125
1.6902
9
31
110.288
Honda
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
25
Conor Daly
1:40.1192
1.6969
14
28
110.281
Chevy
Ed Carpenter Racing
26
Benjamin Pedersen
1:40.3709
1.9486
14
28
110.004
Chevy
AJ Foyt Enterprises
27
Sting Ray Robb
1:40.4460
2.0237
19
32
109.922
Honda
Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
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