Palou tops Laguna Seca test, Ericsson rebounds from shunt

Palou may have slipped to outsider status in the championship race, as he seeks to become Ganassi’s first back-to-back title winner since Dario Franchitti in 2010-11 and he has gone winless so far in 2022. But the Spanish star topped the 13 drivers in action at Laguna Seca, with his nearest rival almost a quarter second adrift.

The NTT-backed #10 CGR-Honda lapped the beautiful undulating 2.238-mile course on the Monterey Peninsula in 1min11.441sec on his 73^rd of 110 laps, a speed of 112.78mph.

His closest rivals were the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolets of Felix Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward who were 0.236 and 0.270sec adrift respectively, with Rosenqvist turning the most laps of the day at 112 but setting his fastest time on Lap 67.

Graham Rahal’s speed suggested Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda’s recent upturn in form is continuing, as he clocked 71.802mph lap on his final flyer of the day.

Indy 500 champion Marcus Ericsson went off at Turn 6, the fast uphill left-hander where cars go through a major compression on their climb to the Corkscrew. The #8 Ganassi machine took significant damage to its left-rear corner and rear wing, and lost 90 minutes of potential track to repairs. But the ice-cool Swede returned to the track in time to run a 71.824 followed two laps later by a 71.893 to close his day within four tenths of Palou.

Rookie David Malukas, who starred on his last IndyCar outing at World Wide Technology Raceway with his first ever podium at this level, was sixth fastest. The Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda driver was 0.07sec faster than six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon, although the legend’s best lap came on Lap 4 before he focused on race setups.

Devlin DeFrancesco used a rookie day as the sole representative of Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport-Honda, and wound up a hair quicker than fellow rookie Callum Ilott of Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet. Jack Harvey and Christian Lundgaard (another rookie) were 10^th and 11^th for RLL, ahead of Takuma Sato in the Coyne with RWR car, while Jimmie Johnson completed the field, two seconds off teammate Palou.

WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca will host the finale of the 2022 NTT IndyCar Series season next week, with the penultimate round being held this weekend at Portland International Raceway.