Herta leads opening session in first IndyCar test at Thermal

The 2.9-mile Thermal Club track near Palm Springs in California saw all 27 fulltime entries hit the track, and Andretti Autosport-Honda star Colton Herta led the way.

The two-and-a-half-hour session saw two red flags – both for harmless spin-and-stalls by Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet and Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda.

With his 17^th lap, Herta became the first driver to crack the 100sec barrier with a 1min39.9303sec effort, an average of 110.489mph.

That was just enough to pip his new teammate, series sophomore Kyle Kirkwood, by 0.0933sec, and the Meyer Shank-Honda of Simon Pagenaud by 0.1875sec.

Six drivers turned 110mph laps, with Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay proving fastest of the Chevrolet runners, ahead of Team Penske’s pair of two-time champions, Josef Newgarden and Will Power.

Romain Grosjean was seventh, just ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s rookie and road/street course specialist Marcus Armstrong, who edged his six-time title-winning teammate and New Zealand compatriot Scott Dixon by a mere 0.0628sec.

Jack Harvey was fastest of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Hondas in 10^th, ahead of 2021 champion Alex Palou (Ganassi) and Scott McLaughlin in the third Penske.

Dale Coyne Racing-Honda rookie Sting Ray Robb turned the most laps at 32, while fellow rookie Agustin Canapino, a touring car legend in his native Argentina, did an impressive job to grab 22^nd fastest, only one second slower than his Juncos Hollinger Racing teammate Callum Ilott.

P	Name	FTime	Diff	FL	Laps	LapTime	FSpeed	Engine	Team
1	Colton Herta	1:39.9303	1:39.9303	17	18	1:46.5651	110.489	Honda	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
2	Kyle Kirkwood	1:40.0236	0.0933	20	20	1:40.0236	110.386	Honda	Andretti Autosport
3	Simon Pagenaud	1:40.1178	0.1875	19	19	1:40.1178	110.282	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
4	Rinus VeeKay	1:40.1913	0.2610	22	22	1:40.1913	110.201	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
5	Josef Newgarden	1:40.2062	0.2759	23	24	1:55.4349	110.185	Chevy	Team Penske
6	Will Power	1:40.3527	0.4224	24	24	1:40.3527	110.024	Chevy	Team Penske
7	Romain Grosjean	1:40.3810	0.4507	5	10	1:42.2825	109.993	Honda	Andretti Autosport
8	Marcus Armstrong	1:40.5302	0.5999	24	24	1:40.5302	109.830	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	Scott Dixon	1:40.5930	0.6627	6	18	1:43.2968	109.761	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
10	Jack Harvey	1:40.6046	0.6743	12	24	1:42.8552	109.748	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
11	Alex Palou	1:40.6435	0.7132	11	15	1:43.3530	109.706	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	Scott McLaughlin	1:40.6552	0.7249	9	21	1:42.3503	109.693	Chevy	Team Penske
13	David Malukas	1:40.9113	0.9810	18	28	1:43.5054	109.415	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
14	Pato O'Ward	1:40.9459	1.0156	5	6	1:47.0089	109.377	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
15	Felix Rosenqvist	1:41.0030	1.0727	11	16	1:41.1082	109.316	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
16	Callum Ilott	1:41.1045	1.1742	8	18	9:30.7142	109.206	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
17	Marcus Ericsson	1:41.1785	1.2482	9	10	1:46.3434	109.126	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
18	Christian Lundgaard	1:41.3312	1.4009	6	16	12:21.627	108.962	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
19	Alexander Rossi	1:41.5103	1.5800	8	15	1:45.0951	108.769	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
20	Conor Daly	1:41.5225	1.5922	10	17	1:42.0697	108.756	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
21	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:41.6003	1.6700	6	18	1:44.1348	108.673	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
22	Agustin Canapino	1:42.1969	2.2666	18	18	1:42.1969	108.039	Chevy	Juncos Holling Racing
23	Graham Rahal	1:42.2185	2.2882	10	17	1:49.1656	108.016	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
24	Sting Ray Robb	1:42.2770	2.3467	32	32	1:42.2770	107.954	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
25	Santino Ferrucci	1:42.3688	2.4385	12	13	1:44.2352	107.857	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
26	Helio Castroneves	1:42.4730	2.5427	9	13	1:42.9485	107.747	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
27	Benjamin Pedersen	1:43.0742	3.1439	11	11	1:43.0742	107.119	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises