Practice report
IndyCar Grand Prix of Indianapolis Race 1
Indy GP IndyCar: Power leads Ferrucci, Ericsson in practice
Will Power topped the 90-minute opening practice session for the second round of the 2020 NTT IndyCar Series season, the GMR Grand Prix of Indianapolis, his Team Penske-Chevrolet edging Santino Ferrucci of Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan-Honda and Marcus Ericsson’s Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda.
David Malsher-Lopez
Edited: Jul 3, 2020, 7:06 PM
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Power, a three-time winner and three-time polesitter on the 2.439-mile 13-turn Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, lapped in 69.949sec as the session climbed toward the 90degF mark.
That was just 0.1755sec faster than Ferrucci who had to sit out five minutes of the session for causing a red-flag when he dumped Ryan Hunter-Reay’s Andretti Autosport-Honda in the grass at the end of the back straight following a misunderstanding with the 2012 champion.
That was one of two red flags, the other being caused by Sage Karam spinning and stalling his Dreyer & Reinbold Racing-Chevrolet on the team’s first road course outing in seven years.
Marcus Ericsson was an impressive third fastest to head the Ganassi trio, as five-time champion teammate Scott Dixon squeezed out a last-minute lap to grab fifth before hitting traffic, and Felix Rosenqvist was eighth.
Said Ericsson: "“It was a good practice session. I think again, like in Texas, all three of us at Chip Ganassi Racing had really strong cars. I was feeling comfortable straight away on the blacks [primary tires] out there.
"We did some tweaking and some smaller stuff on the setup. I think we found some small bits and pieces and then on the reds we felt strong again and competitive… I think we are looking good for this afternoon and for tomorrow for the GMR Grand Prix.”
Patricio O’Ward and Oliver Askew were prominent throughout the session, the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevys looking particularly fast on primary tires, and ending the session fourth and 10th respectively.
Another Chevy-powered team that looked strong on the primaries but struggled to maintain pace as the track evolved was Ed Carpenter Racing, who saw Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly finish 17th and 20th.
Hunter-Reay, despite his earlier issue, was fastest of the Andretti Autosport drivers with sixth place, ahead of Penske’s three-time GP Indy winner Simon Pagenaud.
Defending IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden was down in 12th in the third Penske, while this weekend’s IndyCar debutant, AJ Foyt Racing’s Dalton Kellett, was only 25th but still within 1.5sec of Power’s top time, and only half a second off teammate Charlie Kimball.
Qualifying begins at 4.30pm local/Eastern time.
For a preview, facts, and schedule for the event click here.
Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 Will Power
Team Penske 30 1'09.948 125.526 2
Santino Ferrucci
Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan 21 1'10.124 0.175 0.175 125.212 3 Marcus Ericsson
Chip Ganassi Racing 28 1'10.164 0.216 0.040 125.140 4
Patricio O'Ward
Arrow McLaren SP 29 1'10.187 0.238 0.022 125.099 5 Scott Dixon
Chip Ganassi Racing 25 1'10.205 0.256 0.018 125.067 6
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Andretti Autosport 25 1'10.284 0.335 0.079 124.926 7
Simon Pagenaud
Team Penske 27 1'10.312 0.364 0.028 124.876 8
Felix Rosenqvist
Chip Ganassi Racing 29 1'10.361 0.413 0.049 124.789 9
Spencer Pigot
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing with Citrone/Buhl A 23 1'10.363 0.414 0.001 124.787 10 Oliver Askew
Arrow McLaren SP 30 1'10.364 0.415 0.000 124.785 11 Colton Herta
Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport 17 1'10.384 0.436 0.020 124.749 12 Josef Newgarden
Team Penske 26 1'10.386 0.437 0.001 124.746 13
Jack Harvey
Meyer Shank Racing 24 1'10.455 0.506 0.068 124.624 14
Marco Andretti
Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani 30 1'10.485 0.537 0.030 124.570 15 Alexander Rossi
Andretti Autosport 21 1'10.520 0.571 0.034 124.509 16
Takuma Sato
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 25 1'10.538 0.589 0.017 124.477 17
Rinus van Kalmthout
Ed Carpenter Racing 36 1'10.605 0.657 0.067 124.358 18
Max Chilton
Carlin 26 1'10.611 0.662 0.005 124.348 19
Graham Rahal
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 31 1'10.685 0.736 0.074 124.218 20
Conor Daly
Ed Carpenter Racing 26 1'10.693 0.744 0.008 124.204 21
Zach Veach
Andretti Autosport 27 1'10.708 0.760 0.015 124.177 22
Alex Palou
Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh 26 1'10.886 0.937 0.177 123.866 23 Charlie Kimball
A.J. Foyt Enterprises 25 1'10.979 1.031 0.093 123.703 24
James Hinchcliffe
Andretti Autosport 26 1'11.227 1.278 0.247 123.273 25
Dalton Kellett
A.J. Foyt Enterprises 42 1'11.448 1.499 0.221 122.891 26
Sage Karam
Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 28 1'11.616 1.667 0.168 122.603 View full results
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