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IndyCar Indy GP: O’Ward leads first practice as Rahal Letterman Lanigan star

Pato O’Ward put his Arrow McLaren at the top of the times in first practice on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, but the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team appeared in sparkling form.

Patricio O'Ward, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Patricio O'Ward, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

Richard Dole / Motorsport Images

Inevitably the rookies hit the track first, using their extra set of Firestone primaries, but then it was the Rahal Letterman Lanigan team who sprung to the fore, with first Christian Lundgaard and then Jack Harvey hitting the top of the times.

Harvey, who scored his only IndyCar podium on the 2.439-mile road course in 2019, lapped the course in 1m10.4121s, an average speed of 124.700mph.

Harvey’s time was shaded by 2021 champion Alex Palou in Chip Ganassi Racing’s #10 and then CGR’s six-time champ Scott Dixon, but he remained third.

Palou lowered his time on primaries to 1m10.2689. Behind Harvey was 2021 IMS roadcourse winner Rinus VeeKay of Ed Carpenter Racing, chased by Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden and Will Power.

With 12 minutes to go, the times started to tumble as drivers tried out their sets of Firestone alternates, with Pato O’Ward and Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren sandwiching the RLL cars of Lundgaard and Harvey, chased by Power and VeeKay. O’Ward’s benchmark was 1m09.4981s, an average of 126.340mph.

Scott McLaughlin and Marcus Ericsson bounced into the top six with five minutes remaining, while Alex Palou went third fastest.

Christian Lundgaard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Christian Lundgaard, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images

McLaughlin improved to fourth, as team-mate Newgarden was late leaving on reds due to an apparent clutch problem.

Colton Herta was unable to set a representative time, as his new Honda unit started smoking on his first installation lap at the start of the session and he returned to the garage. The team just got him out for another installation lap in the final two minutes.

Second practice begins at 6pm BST.

IndyCar Indy GP FP1 results

Cla Driver Team Time Gap Interval Mph
1 Mexico Patricio O'Ward Arrow McLaren 1'09.4981     126.340
2 Denmark Christian Lundgaard United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'09.4988 0.0007 0.0007 126.339
3 Spain Alex Palou United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.5213 0.0232 0.0225 126.298
4 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin United States Team Penske 1'09.5465 0.0484 0.0252 126.252
5 United Kingdom Jack Harvey United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'09.5976 0.0995 0.0511 126.160
6 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist Arrow McLaren 1'09.7152 0.2171 0.1176 125.947
7 Sweden Marcus Ericsson United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.7706 0.2725 0.0554 125.847
8 New Zealand Scott Dixon United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.7811 0.2830 0.0105 125.828
9 Australia Will Power United States Team Penske 1'09.9494 0.4513 0.1683 125.525
10 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout United States Ed Carpenter Racing 1'09.9595 0.4614 0.0101 125.507
11 New Zealand Marcus Armstrong United States Chip Ganassi Racing 1'09.9771 0.4790 0.0176 125.475
12 United States Kyle Kirkwood United States Andretti Autosport 1'09.9802 0.4821 0.0031 125.470
13 United States Graham Rahal United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 1'10.0010 0.5029 0.0208 125.432
14 United States Conor Daly United States Ed Carpenter Racing 1'10.0138 0.5157 0.0128 125.410
15 United States Josef Newgarden United States Team Penske 1'10.0681 0.5700 0.0543 125.312
16 France Romain Grosjean United States Andretti Autosport 1'10.0800 0.5819 0.0119 125.291
17 United States Alexander Rossi Arrow McLaren 1'10.1417 0.6436 0.0617 125.181
18 France Simon Pagenaud United States Meyer Shank Racing 1'10.1975 0.6994 0.0558 125.081
19 United States David Malukas United States Dale Coyne Racing 1'10.2324 0.7343 0.0349 125.019
20 Ray Robb United States Dale Coyne Racing 1'10.3928 0.8947 0.1604 124.734
21 United Kingdom Callum Ilott United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 1'10.4085 0.9104 0.0157 124.707
22 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco United States Andretti Autosport 1'10.4150 0.9169 0.0065 124.695
23 Brazil Helio Castroneves United States Meyer Shank Racing 1'10.5015 1.0034 0.0865 124.542
24 United States Santino Ferrucci United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1'10.6467 1.1486 0.1452 124.286
25 Denmark Benjamin Pedersen United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 1'10.7691 1.2710 0.1224 124.071
26 Argentina Agustin Canapino United States Juncos Hollinger Racing 1'10.9736 1.4755 0.2045 123.714
27 United States Colton Herta United States Andretti Autosport        

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