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Practice report

Portland IndyCar: Palou leads Castroneves in first practice

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Alex Palou set the fastest lap of the 75-minute practice session at Portland International Raceway, the only track time before qualifying.

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

Gavin Baker / LAT Images

Despite an off at the final corner that brought out one of three red flags mid-session, the Spanish sophomore clocked a 58.7824sec lap on alternate tires that sent him to the top of the times by one-tenth of a second.

Next up were Helio Castroneves and Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda, with championship leader fourth for Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet.

Another title contender, Josef Newgarden was fifth ahead of Romain Grosjean of Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda.

Unusually, 2019 Portland winner Will Power set his fastest time on primary tires to go seventh fastest ahead of Andretti Autosport-Honda pairing Alexander Rossi and Colton Herta.

Scott Dixon was 11th for Ganassi, less than two-hundredths behind the fastest of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Hondas, that of Graham Rahal.

As he practices for only his third start this year, Oliver Askew was 16th in the #45 RLL entry, but Takuma Sato’s engine let go on his third lap and so the two-time Indy 500 winner didn’t set a representative lap.

Scott McLaughlin suffered an off at the final corner late in the session that brought out the red flag but he finished the session 12th, while Max Chilton of Carlin was the other driver who halted the session with a spin-and-stall.

Jimmie Johnson was a very impressive 20th fastest, just 0.673sec from top time, while IndyCar debutant Callum Ilott was 24th of 27 cars in his Juncos Hollinger Chevrolet, 1.135sec from the pace, but didn’t set a time on the Firestone alternate compounds.

Qualifying begins at 12.15pm local (Pacific) time, while there will be a second practice of 30mins at 3.15pm.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 Spain Alex Palou
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 33 58.782 120.281
2 Brazil Helio Castroneves
United States Meyer Shank Racing 32 58.885 0.102 120.071
3 United Kingdom Jack Harvey
United States Meyer Shank Racing 27 58.888 0.106 120.064
4 Mexico Patricio O'Ward
United States Arrow McLaren SP 33 58.893 0.110 120.054
5 United States Josef Newgarden
United States Team Penske 34 58.894 0.112 120.052
6 France Romain Grosjean
United States Dale Coyne Racing 37 58.905 0.123 120.030
7 Australia Will Power
United States Team Penske 33 58.919 0.137 120.000
8 United States Alexander Rossi
United States Andretti Autosport 32 58.932 0.150 119.975
9 United States Colton Herta
United States Andretti Autosport 33 58.947 0.164 119.944
10 United States Graham Rahal
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 32 58.991 0.209 119.855
11 New Zealand Scott Dixon
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 33 59.008 0.225 119.820
12 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin
United States Team Penske 31 59.066 0.284 119.702
13 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist
United States Arrow McLaren SP 31 59.109 0.327 119.615
14 Sweden Marcus Ericsson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 32 59.118 0.335 119.598
15 France Sébastien Bourdais
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 29 59.291 0.508 119.249
16 United States Oliver Askew
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 33 59.298 0.515 119.235
17 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 34 59.309 0.527 119.212
18 Canada James Hinchcliffe
United States Andretti Autosport 25 59.312 0.530 119.206
19 United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
United States Dale Coyne Racing 31 59.338 0.555 119.154
20 United States Jimmie Johnson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 36 59.455 0.673 118.919
21 United States Conor Daly
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 32 59.536 0.754 118.757
22 United Kingdom Max Chilton
United Kingdom Carlin 33 59.584 0.801 118.662
23 France Simon Pagenaud
United States Team Penske 33 59.680 0.898 118.471
24 United Kingdom Callum Ilott
Juncos Hollinger Racing 35 59.917 1.135 118.002
25 Canada Dalton Kellett
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 42 1'00.198 1.416 117.451
26 United States Ryan Hunter-Reay
United States Andretti Autosport 11 1'00.269 1.487 117.312
27 Japan Takuma Sato
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 3 1'22.252 23.469 85.960

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