Laguna Seca IndyCar: Newgarden leads Herta, Palou in FP1

Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda was another to venture off course, skidding into the gravel at the 180-deg Turn 2, bringing out red flag with 18mins to go. But in both his and Herta’s case, car damage appeared minimal.

Newgarden lapped the 2.238-mile course in 1min11.7125sec to shade Herta’s Andretti Autosport-Honda by a mere 0.0802sec on his fourth of 11 laps turned.

Championship leader Alex Palou was third fastest, comfortably clear of his Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda teammates Marcus Ericsson and Scott Dixon.

Ed Jones was one of the stars of the session, lapping his Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan-Honda fourth fastest, ahead of Alexander Rossi in a second Andretti car.

Another star was Oliver Askew who landed sixth fastest for Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda, as he strives to stake a claim to the #45 car for 2022.

Jimmie Johnson was only 1.5sec off the pace at a track on which he’s tested twice before, ahead of Max Chilton (Carlin-Chevrolet), Dalton Kellett of AJ Foyt Racing, and Juncos-Hollinger’s Callum Ilott, who will be making his second IndyCar start this weekend.

P	No	Name	FTime	Diff	Gap	FL	Laps	LapTime	LPit	Led	ST	FSpeed	Elapsed	Engine	Tire	Points	Team
1	2	Josef Newgarden	1:11.7125	1:11.7125	0.000	4	11	1:13.2198	10		1	112.349	44:55.6708	Chevy	P	443	Team Penske
2	26	Colton Herta	1:11.7927	0.0802	0.0802	4	10	1:17.5541	9		17	112.223	43:25.6240	Honda	P	348	Andretti Autosport
3	10	Alex Palou	1:11.9750	0.2625	0.1823	4	14	3:31.4358	14		9	111.939	44:45.8049	Honda	P	477	Chip Ganassi Racing
4	18	Ed Jones	1:12.0166	0.3041	0.0416	7	16	1:22.7425	12		13	111.874	46:07.4210	Honda	P	195	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
5	27	Alexander Rossi	1:12.0625	0.3500	0.0459	4	12	1:15.5283	9		18	111.803	45:20.4977	Honda	P	299	Andretti Autosport
6	45	Oliver Askew	1:12.1516	0.4391	0.0891	14	18	1:21.8008	15		22	111.665	45:42.9964	Honda	P	30	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
7	29	James Hinchcliffe	1:12.1885	0.4760	0.0369	15	16	1:20.6996	11		20	111.608	45:36.7038	Honda	P	194	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
8	60	Jack Harvey	1:12.2289	0.5164	0.0404	4	13	1:24.8710	10		26	111.545	45:59.6611	Honda	P	266	Meyer Shank Racing
9	51	Romain Grosjean	1:12.3210	0.6085	0.0921	6	17	1:23.4562	14		24	111.403	46:05.8080	Honda	P	230	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
10	8	Marcus Ericsson	1:12.3564	0.6439	0.0354	9	12	1:18.5745	6		7	111.349	43:57.2366	Honda	P	402	Chip Ganassi Racing
11	9	Scott Dixon	1:12.4415	0.7290	0.0851	5	11	1:12.6367	8		8	111.218	45:14.0386	Honda	P	428	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	3	Scott McLaughlin	1:12.4462	0.7337	0.0047	17	17	1:12.4462	14		2	111.211	43:37.7121	Chevy	P	268	Team Penske
13	06	Helio Castroneves	1:12.4757	0.7632	0.0295	5	15	1:16.9809	10		5	111.166	45:24.9060	Honda	P	141	Meyer Shank Racing
14	5	Pato O'Ward	1:12.4982	0.7857	0.0225	4	11	4:37.3868	11		4	111.131	45:57.3556	Chevy	P	452	Arrow McLaren SP
15	12	Will Power	1:12.5701	0.8576	0.0719	5	18	1:23.2502	14		10	111.021	45:51.8178	Chevy	P	332	Team Penske
16	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:12.7014	0.9889	0.1313	6	13	1:16.6036	9		6	110.820	45:27.0855	Chevy	P	177	Arrow McLaren SP
17	15	Graham Rahal	1:12.8486	1.1361	0.1472	6	13	1:14.9644	12		12	110.596	45:17.4149	Honda	P	342	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
18	14	Sebastien Bourdais	1:12.9506	1.2381	0.1020	5	14	3:47.3106	14		11	110.442	45:02.8627	Chevy	P	218	AJ Foyt Enterprises
19	30	Takuma Sato	1:12.9923	1.2798	0.0417	5	15	1:13.5475	13		21	110.379	44:58.3868	Honda	P	297	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
20	22	Simon Pagenaud	1:13.0318	1.3193	0.0395	7	10	1:14.9263	3		16	110.319	42:32.6871	Chevy	P	329	Team Penske
21	21	Rinus VeeKay	1:13.0717	1.3592	0.0399	8	15	1:21.1568	12		15	110.259	46:09.4512	Chevy	P	291	Ed Carpenter Racing
22	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1:13.1024	1.3899	0.0307	3	13	1:19.3304	11		19	110.213	45:46.1035	Honda	P	230	Andretti Autosport
23	20	Conor Daly	1:13.1403	1.4278	0.0379	11	15	1:14.0275	13		14	110.155	45:05.2734	Chevy	P	212	Ed Carpenter Racing
24	48	Jimmie Johnson	1:13.2609	1.5484	0.1206	7	18	1:16.1071	14		23	109.974	45:28.2373	Honda	P	82	Chip Ganassi Racing
25	59	Max Chilton	1:13.3980	1.6855	0.1371	8	16	1:29.3125	13		25	109.769	46:18.7075	Chevy	P	110	Carlin
26	4	Dalton Kellett	1:13.7256	2.0131	0.3276	6	17	1:20.1980	15		3	109.281	45:53.1851	Chevy	P	130	AJ Foyt Enterprises
27	77	Callum Ilott	1:13.7398	2.0273	0.0142	5	20	1:14.3763	13		27	109.260	43:56.2190	Chevy	P	5	Juncos Hollinger Racing