IMS IndyCar: Palou leads, Lundgaard impresses in practice

May’s GP of Indy winner Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet was the first driver to duck into the 71sec bracket, with a 1min11.8641sec effort on his fourth lap, with Jack Harvey of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda – traditionally fast around here – his nearest competitor, 0.155sec behind.

With 20mins to go, Lundgaard, Formula 2 race winner, jumped up into sixth in the #45 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda, while Helio Castroneves in the second MSR-Honda went second, displacing teammate Harvey, and Conor Daly put his ECR-Chevy into fourth.

Among the minor mistakes and use of run-offs, Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power had a little adventure with 18mins to go when he locked up his brakes in the #12 Penske at Turn 1, then missed the rejoin route in the run-off and drifted onto the banking of Indy oval Turn 4. He was refired by the AMR Safety Team and returned to action.

In the final quarter-hour of the session as drivers took on a set of new Firestone primaries, May’s polesitter Romain Grosjean stuck his Dale Coyne Racing with RWR-Honda into P1, ahead of Pato O’Ward (Arrow McLaren SP-Chevy), Scott McLaughlin (Penske), Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s points leader), and Ed Jones (Coyne-with Vasser-Sullivan).

Then Power sprung to the top of the times for drivers on primary tires, producing a 1min11.5371sec.

Naturally, times really started to come down once the softer-compound alternate Firestones were put on, and VeeKay clocked the first 70sec lap – 1min10.9062sec – before Lundgaard set time less than quarter-second slower.

Christian Lundgaard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

Alex Palou hit P1 with a 1min10.8839sec, and Graham Rahal all-but matched Lundgaard to go fourth before the fun was put on hold with a red flag for Colton Herta’s Andretti Autosport-Honda which ground to a halt at pit exit with a dragging clutch and an oil-pressure problem.

With three minutes to go, most of the remaining 28 cars hit the track once more. Rahal fell off the track at Turn 7 for a second time, while veteran teammate Takuma Sato had an unnecessary run-in with Jones.

VeeKay drew to 0.0233sec behind Palou’s top time, while O’Ward bounced into third ahead of Harvey.

Josef Newgarden, who will take a six-place grid penalty,  snatched fifth at the last gasp, a couple of hundredths ahead of Penske teammate Power.

Lundgaard showed no qualms about using the extra grip from the Firestone reds to stay well inside the Top 10.

Ryan Hunter-Reay swerved around the recovering Rahal to take 10^th, ahead of AA-Honda teammate Alexander Rossi.

Top Gun Racing made an encouraging return to action – the first time it has entered an IndyCar race since its DNQ at the Indy 500 – as RC Enerson did his traditionally impressive job to end up 22^nd, just 1.1sec off the ultimate pace.

Despite finishing 27^th of 28 cars, Jimmie Johnson could take huge encouragement from the session, too, within 1.5sec of pacesetting teammate Palou.

Qualifying begins at 7pm local (Eastern) time.