Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia

IndyCar Harvest GP: Palou tops practice on IMS road course

Alex Palou put the Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh squad on top of the 75min practice session ahead of qualifying for Race 1 of the Harvest Grand Prix.

Alex Palou, Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh Honda

Alex Palou, Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh Honda

Barry Cantrell / Motorsport Images

With temperatures some 30degF cooler than when the teams last raced here on July the Fourth weekend, Palou turned a lap of 1min10.178sec, an average speed of 125.117mph, to head Meyer Shank Racing Honda’s Jack Harvey by 0.0996sec.

It was a somewhat inconclusive session because Marcus Ericsson spun his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda with fewer than five minutes to go, before many of the team had tried out their red-sidewalled softer-compound Firestones.

Nonetheless, Palou’s speed was impressive as it virtually equaled Will Power’s pole position time from July. The Team Penske-Chevrolet driver was unable to set a representative time on reds as he and Andretti Autosport-Honda driver Alexander Rossi had a feather-light rub together at the end of the back straight when the field made a dash for the track in the closing three minutes. The silver #12 looped into a spin, and Rossi himself was delayed enough that he too missed setting a time.

Thus it was Colton Herta who upheld Andretti Autosport honor with third fastest time ahead of champion elect Scott Dixon of Ganassi.

Max Chilton, who shone here at IMS road course in July, looked impressive again, finishing fifth ahead of defending champion Josef Newgarden in the fastest of the Penske cars, Graham Rahal of Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda, Patricio O’Ward of Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy, Felix Rosenqvist (Ganassi) and Simon Pagenaud (Penske).

Prepping for his first IndyCar race of the year, Sebastien Bourdais was 22nd for AJ Foyt Racing, just ahead of Helio Castroneves. The Brazilian 45-year-old hasn’t competed on a road course in an IndyCar since this same venue in May 2019, and as an Arrow McLaren SP driver, standing in for medically unfit rookie Oliver Askew, he hasn’t driven a non-Penske IndyCar for 21 years!

James Hinchcliffe, replacing Zach Veach in the #26 Gainbridge Andretti car, was 24th fastest.

Qualifying begins at 6.20pm local (Eastern) time, and – as with all road/street course double-headers – will see the field divided in half, and the fastest driver taking pole and earning his group the odd-numbered side of the grid.

Cla # Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 55 Spain Alex Palou
Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh 25 1'10.177 125.117
2 60 United Kingdom Jack Harvey
United States Meyer Shank Racing 22 1'10.277 0.099 124.939
3 88 United States Colton Herta
Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport 23 1'10.385 0.208 124.747
4 9 New Zealand Scott Dixon
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 22 1'10.432 0.255 124.664
5 59 United Kingdom Max Chilton
United Kingdom Carlin 27 1'10.463 0.285 124.609
6 1 United States Josef Newgarden
United States Team Penske 23 1'10.530 0.353 124.490
7 15 United States Graham Rahal
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 29 1'10.629 0.451 124.317
8 5 Mexico Patricio O'Ward
Arrow McLaren SP 29 1'10.630 0.453 124.314
9 10 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 29 1'10.633 0.455 124.310
10 22 France Simon Pagenaud
United States Team Penske 23 1'10.636 0.459 124.304
11 98 United States Marco Andretti
Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 30 1'10.753 0.575 124.099
12 27 United States Alexander Rossi
United States Andretti Autosport 23 1'10.758 0.580 124.090
13 21 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 27 1'10.824 0.647 123.974
14 12 Australia Will Power
United States Team Penske 25 1'10.838 0.660 123.950
15 28 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay
United States Andretti Autosport 25 1'10.847 0.669 123.935
16 18 United States Santino Ferrucci
Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 15 1'10.970 0.792 123.720
17 41 Canada Dalton Kellett
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 26 1'11.136 0.958 123.431
18 20 United States Conor Daly
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 25 1'11.145 0.967 123.415
19 8 Sweden Marcus Ericsson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 26 1'11.191 1.013 123.335
20 30 Japan Takuma Sato
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 28 1'11.382 1.205 123.004
21 4 United States Charlie Kimball
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 26 1'11.453 1.276 122.882
22 14 France Sébastien Bourdais
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 26 1'11.479 1.302 122.837
23 7 Brazil Helio Castroneves
Arrow McLaren SP 26 1'11.626 1.449 122.585
24 26 Canada James Hinchcliffe
United States Andretti Autosport 23 1'11.657 1.479 122.533
25 24 United States Sage Karam
United States Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 11 1'12.097 1.919 121.785

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation

Related video

Previous article IMSA, IndyCar to race at Detroit on separate weekends in 2021
Next article Brown not setting specific targets for Castroneves in Harvest GP

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia