A flurry of action closed the only practice session in the NTT IndyCar Series for Saturday’s GMR Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway circuit, and at the end of the 90-minute start, Team Penske Power came on top of the 26 drivers present. .
Power’s lap of 1m09.9487s at No. 12 Chevy was 0.1755s faster than Dale Coyne Racing with Santino Ferrucci of Vasser-Sullivan, who made great progress at No. 18 Honda. Another surprise followed Ferrucci when Marcus Ericsson led the Chip Ganassi Racing trio in his No. 8 Honda (+ 0.2161s), and Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward gave the team a boost in fourth place with the No. 5 Chevy. (+ 0.2387s)
“It’s hot, and it’s going to be a difficult race in that regard,” Power said of the mid-1990s ambient temperature. Hopefully we can go for pole. “
With qualification on the horizon, the teams used most of the session to work on the race setup, but few drivers made long runs to measure the rate of degradation with Firestone’s primary black tires over an extended number of laps. . Once the teams moved on to qualifying simulations on the faster Firestone red tires, the top of the leaderboard changed repeatedly.
Ferrucci’s pace in the reds was remarkable.
“Our car is very well connected today,” he said. “We wanted to launch something competitive, and that’s what we did. I can’t wait to qualify later today. “
CGR’s Scott Dixon, winner of the season’s first game of the season in Texas, could be one to be seen in the 80-lap race after finishing fifth at No. 9 Honda (+ 0.2567s). Although Dixon was not the fastest in blacks or reds, his speed in the top five in the race and qualifying fit stood out among a number of drivers who did well in one practice phase but struggled in the other. . Ryan Hunter-Reay of Andretti Autosport completed the top six spots at No. 28 Honda (+ 0.3359s).
NASCAR’s Goodyear-shod Xfinity cars will complete their first and second sessions on the track before qualifying for IndyCar. By leading the times, Power is allowed to choose whether to run in the first or second group of qualifiers, and in light of Goodyear’s new rubber to contend with, the Australian chose to let his rivals clean the track during their initial races. .
“For the first guys, I am sure it will be different.”
The session presented some setbacks for a handful of drivers. Marco Andretti of Andretti Herta Autosport ran a turn shortly after the cars hit the track, and his teammate Colton Herta of Andretti Harding Steinbrenner dealt with a misfire in his twin-turbo V6 Honda engine. Eventually he would return to the circuit and record the eleventh fastest time; Andretti was 14th.
A red flag was thrown just as he passed halfway when Ferrucci and Hunter-Reay faced off at the apex of Turn 7. With the Andretti driver on one lap and slowly warming up his tires, the Coyne driver at high speed waited the 2014 Indy 500 winner to make way.
“He gave me a central punch; I didn’t even see it, ”Hunter-Reay said over the radio. However, once the situation was explained to the veteran, he accepted the blame: “That is my evil; I looked at it twice and didn’t see it.
Another red flag was required to remove the stalled Sage Karam Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Chevy with 31 minutes remaining on the clock. Persistent clutch problems and re-firing the Chevy-powered No. 24 inlet gave the AMR security team some headaches; Karam finished session 26 and last.
Andretti’s James Hinchcliffe put the finishing touches on the extracurricular excursions with a brief trip off the track in the last minute of the session, but no harm was done to the No. 29 Honda, which ranked 24th on the checkered flag.
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