IMS IndyCar: Rossi tops practice, Newgarden bounces back

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Alex Palou, around whom so much controversy is swirling at the moment, put his 2023 considerations aside to go quickest on the hard compound Firestones, his 19^th lap producing a 70.9799sec 123.703mph of the 2.439-mile road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with around half an hour of the 90min session left to run.

Then Rinus VeeKay, who won on this course in May 2021, overhauled him on the alternate compound to slot his Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy into top spot.

Alexander Rossi and rookie teammate Devlin DeFrancesco then moved their Andretti Autosport-Hondas into first and second with their second laps on the reds, Rossi’s best being a 70.0919. The pair were soon separated from each other by a pair of Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Hondas, those of Jack Harvey and Rookie of the Year points leader Christian Lundgaard, and their teammate Graham Rahal soon joined them in the low 70s.

Colton Herta moved up to second in another Andretti car before Josef Newgarden claimed second in the #2 Team Penske-Chevrolet. That seemed to prove his re-evaluation following his Iowa incidents would be somewhat superfluous.

One of his teammates Scott McLaughlin slotted into fourth, just ahead of Palou who also found strong pace on reds.

His other teammate, Will Power, who has taken six poles and five wins at this track, didn’t find the necessary speed while his reds were at their best and wound up only 18^th fastest. He did, however, evoke a “nice save” comment from his strategist Ron Ruzewski after gathering up an alarming, smoky oversteer moment at Turn 8 while on the harder compound rubber.

Less successful in terms of honing their handling was Pato O’Ward, who took three adventures into grass and dirt in his Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet to finish up 20^th fastest.

Romain Grosjean also appeared to have a very loose racecar, and was way off his teammates’ times and down in 21^st.

Qualifying begins at 1pm local (Eastern) time.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	31	1'10.0919		125.270
2	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	27	1'10.1121	0.0202	125.234
3	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	25	1'10.1507	0.0588	125.165
4	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	32	1'10.2065	0.1146	125.065
5	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	29	1'10.2093	0.1174	125.060
6	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	29	1'10.2948	0.2029	124.908
7	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	25	1'10.2948	0.2029	124.908
8	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	29	1'10.3237	0.2318	124.857
9	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	25	1'10.3694	0.2775	124.776
10	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	29	1'10.4016	0.3097	124.719
11	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	27	1'10.4739	0.3820	124.591
12	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	32	1'10.5234	0.4315	124.503
13	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing	30	1'10.5350	0.4431	124.483
14	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	30	1'10.5927	0.5008	124.381
15	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	31	1'10.5991	0.5072	124.370
16	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	27	1'10.6038	0.5119	124.362
17	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	29	1'10.6040	0.5121	124.361
18	Will Power	Team Penske	34	1'10.6196	0.5277	124.334
19	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	30	1'10.6478	0.5559	124.284
20	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	26	1'10.7272	0.6353	124.145
21	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	30	1'10.7344	0.6425	124.132
22	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	29	1'11.1466	1.0547	123.413
23	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	28	1'11.2690	1.1771	123.201
24	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	39	1'11.6786	1.5867	122.497
25	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	20	1'12.4978	2.4059	121.113
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