Laguna Seca IndyCar: Newgarden leads Herta, Palou in practice

In IndyCar's first visit to the hilly California venue since the 2019 finale, after a planned double-header in 2020 was scrapped due to the ongoing pandemic, Newgarden came out of the blocks fastest to shade Herta by a mere 0.080 seconds with a benchmark time of 1m11.7125s set on his fourth of 11 laps completed.

Behind the top two, championship leader Alex Palou was third fastest, lapping the 2.238-mile circuit 0.262s slower than Newgarden. He was comfortably clear of his Chip Ganassi Racing team-mates Marcus Ericsson and Scott Dixon, who set the tenth and 11th fastest times, and nearest title rival Patricio O'Ward's Arrow-McLaren SP car in 14th.

Ed Jones was one of the stars of the session, going fourth fastest in his Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan entry, as Alexander Rossi in a second Andretti car completed the top five.

Oliver Askew did his hopes of landing a full-time drive with Rahal Letterman Lanigan in 2022 no harm at all by going sixth quickest in the team's third car, outpacing team leader Graham Rahal (17th) and the DCR-linked Takuma Sato (19th).

James Hinchcliffe made it three Andretti cars in the top 10 in seventh spot, just ahead of Jack Harvey (Meyer Shank Racing) and top rookie Romain Grosjean's Dale Coyne Racing with RWR machine.

Oliver Askew, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda

Photo by: Joe Skibinski

Harvey's team-mate Helio Castroneves brought out the red flag when he skidded into the gravel at the 180-degree Turn 2 with 18 minutes to go. The four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, the only driver other than Herta to have won at the track in Indy cars after his victory for Team Penske in 2000, appeared to have inflicted only minor damage.

At a track where he's tested twice before, NASCAR legend Jimmie Johnson was encouraged by lapping only 1.5s off the pace in 24th.

He outpaced Max Chilton (Carlin), Dalton Kellett (AJ Foyt Racing) and Juncos-Hollinger’s Callum Ilott, who will be making his second IndyCar start this weekend.

IndyCar Laguna Seca Practice results:

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	11	1'11.712
2	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	10	1'11.792	0.080
3	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	14	1'11.975	0.262
4	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing	16	1'12.016	0.304
5	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	12	1'12.062	0.350
6	Oliver Askew	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	18	1'12.151	0.439
7	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	16	1'12.188	0.476
8	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	13	1'12.228	0.516
9	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	17	1'12.321	0.608
10	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	12	1'12.356	0.643
11	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	11	1'12.441	0.729
12	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	17	1'12.446	0.733
13	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	15	1'12.475	0.763
14	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	11	1'12.498	0.785
15	Will Power	Team Penske	18	1'12.570	0.857
16	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	13	1'12.701	0.988
17	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	13	1'12.848	1.136
18	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	14	1'12.950	1.238
19	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	1'12.992	1.279
20	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	10	1'13.031	1.319
21	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	15	1'13.071	1.359
22	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	13	1'13.102	1.389
23	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	15	1'13.140	1.427
24	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'13.260	1.548
25	Max Chilton	Carlin	16	1'13.398	1.685
26	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	17	1'13.725	2.013
27	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	20	1'13.739	2.027
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