Laguna Seca IndyCar: Newgarden sets blistering pace in FP1

Jimmie Johnson of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda was the first driver to set a representative lap with a 74.4011sec, and he was soon followed onto the track by Simona De Silvestro making her fourth start for Paretta Autosport-Chevrolet. She got down to 0.15sec away before pitting for the first time

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda’s David Malukas, taking advantage of the extra set of Firestone primaries for rookies, moved to the top of the times with a 72.9245sec lap of the 2.238-mile road course, half a second faster than Devlin DeFrancesco of Andretti Autosport-Honda… until DeFrancesco slipped ahead eventually getting down to 1min12.7385sec on his first run, an average of 110.764mph.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Christian Lundgaard, who is trying to cling onto or preferably extend his five-point lead over Malukas in the Rookie of the Year battle, edged ahead of him by 0.0765sec with his first run. Lundgaard tested at Laguna Seca for the first time two weeks ago, and admitted it was tricky, and he was off teammate Graham Rahal’s pace, but this start was impressive.

On his first flying lap, championship leader Will Power locked up his left tire at the top of the Corkscrew and took a sort-of Alex Zanardi line, causing that lap to be invalidated but he stayed out of the gravel and continued.

In his final race weekend with Andretti Autosport, Alexander Rossi’s fifth lap sent him up to second, but then Josef Newgarden topped the times with a 1min12.3512sec, before Power shaded him by a 0.0015sec, an average of 111.359mph. Three minutes later, their teammate beat them to top spot by 0.13sec and then Alex Palou, who topped the test here, moved up to second for Ganassi.

Palou’s time in P2 didn’t last long, as Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy’s Pato O’Ward delivered a time just 0.031sec slower than McLaughlin.

Colton Herta, who has taken pole and won in IndyCar’s last two visits here, grabbed third, just before the red flag flew for Jimmie Johnson crashing at Turn 6. The #48 Ganassi car twitched under braking just when he needed to be turning in and he plowed off the course. The car spun around and he hit the tire wall with his rear wing.

The session restarted with 20mins to go, and on Firestone’s new alternate compound, Simon Pagenaud delivered a 1min11.9821sec lap, an average of 111.928mph. His first challenger also on alternates was David Malukas, 0.0597sec adrift.

O’Ward’s first flyer on reds fell 0.0512sec short of Pagenaud, while McLaughlin dropped his wheels off on the drive to Turn 4 on Laps 1 and 3 of his ‘red’ run, but in between got a lap 0.1sec from the lead.

Power and Rossi moved up to second and third, although when Power tried to go faster, he clipped the sand exiting Turn 3. Callum Ilott of Juncos-Hollinger Racing, Rossi and Herta all cycle through P1 until Newgarden got it all perfect on his second lap to claim top spot by over four-tenths. His 71.4103sec was an average of 112.824mph.

Romain Grosjean got up to third, splitting Herta and Rossi, but no one was going to threaten Newgarden’s top spot on this day.

Ilott remained a highly impressive top five, just ahead of Pagenaud, Power and O’Ward.

De Silvestro ended the session 2.6441sec off the top spot, but within one second of her Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet teammates Rinus VeeKay and Conor Daly.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	18	1'11.4103		112.824
2	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	16	1'11.8266	0.4163	112.170
3	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	18	1'11.8697	0.4594	112.103
4	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	20	1'11.9034	0.4931	112.050
5	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	17	1'11.9490	0.5387	111.979
6	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	19	1'11.9821	0.5718	111.928
7	Will Power	Team Penske	21	1'11.9858	0.5755	111.922
8	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	16	1'12.0333	0.6230	111.848
9	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing	22	1'12.0418	0.6315	111.835
10	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	15	1'12.0803	0.6700	111.775
11	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	15	1'12.0877	0.6774	111.764
12	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	14	1'12.1036	0.6933	111.739
13	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	26	1'12.2135	0.8032	111.569
14	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	19	1'12.3102	0.8999	111.420
15	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	20	1'12.3193	0.9090	111.406
16	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	22	1'12.3840	0.9737	111.306
17	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	16	1'12.3911	0.9808	111.295
18	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	19	1'12.4401	1.0298	111.220
19	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	1'12.9774	1.5671	110.401
20	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	16	1'13.0487	1.6384	110.294
21	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	19	1'13.1004	1.6901	110.216
22	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	19	1'13.1450	1.7347	110.148
23	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	28	1'13.2761	1.8658	109.951
24	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	27	1'13.6331	2.2228	109.418
25	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	20	1'13.9251	2.5148	108.986
26	Simona de Silvestro	Paretta Autosport	27	1'14.0544	2.6441	108.796
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