Long Beach IndyCar: Herta tops first practice, Palou shines

The famous California street race was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic, meaning second-year driver Palou had never previously driven around the 1.968-mile track.

But the Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who heads nearest rival Patricio O'Ward in the standings by 35 points and needs only an 11th place finish to be guaranteed the title, enjoyed a clear run during a session that was red flagged three times due to incidents for Josef Newgarden, Oliver Askew and Dalton Kellett.

Moments after newly-announced Andretti Autosport signing Romain Grosjean's Dale Coyne Racing with RWR machine went too deep at Turn 9 and reversed out, title outsider Newgarden did the same having locked up when his front wheels got airborne over a bump.

The Penske driver's spin resulted in him merely kissing the tyre wall, but when he tried to get going again, the car stalled.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan driver Askew, who is auditioning to drive the team's third car full-time next season, caused the second red flag when he clipped a wall with his right rear tyre, resulting in a bent wishbone and a flat tyre.

The 2019 Indy Lights champion, also new to Long Beach, had already grazed his left-side front and rear tyres.

Kellett's AJ Foyt Racing entry then caused the the third red flag with a repeat of Newgarden's early off at Turn 9.

Amid the interruptions, Herta was the early pace-setter with the first sub-70s lap, before he was usurped by two-time Long Beach-winning team-mate Alexander Rossi.

Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske Chevrolet

Photo by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images

Fresh from his second win of the season at Laguna Seca last weekend, Herta then cut more than half a second from his best to return to the top spot on 1m09.268s, with Rossi, Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe briefly locking out the top four for the Andretti squad.

Palou then upset the Andretti symmetry with a 1m09.455s to go second, although 2016 champion Simon Pagenaud – earlier to be found down an escape road – jumped ahead of him to end up as Herta's closest challenger 0.165s adrift.

At the session’s close as the track picked up pace, Felix Rosenqvist delivered the fourth-best time for Arrow McLaren SP, while Hunter-Reay retained fifth ahead of Meyer Shank Racing's four-time Long Beach pole winner Helio Castroneves.

Rookie Scott McLaughlin was second fastest of the Team Penske contingent with seventh as Hinchcliffe, Rossi and Newgarden completed the top 10.

McLaughlin's rival for rookie of the year honours Grosjean clocked the 11th fastest time, while title challenger O'Ward endured a disappointing session to end up a very disconsolate 16th.

After a couple of confidence-sapping spins, Jimmie Johnson brought up the rear of the 27-car field two seconds off the pace.

Long Beach IndyCar Practice 1 Results

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	17	1'09.268
2	Simon Pagenaud	Team Penske	17	1'09.433	0.165
3	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	22	1'09.455	0.187
4	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	17	1'09.487	0.219
5	Ryan Hunter-Reay	Andretti Autosport	15	1'09.515	0.247
6	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	21	1'09.570	0.302
7	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	21	1'09.621	0.353
8	James Hinchcliffe	Andretti Autosport	14	1'09.627	0.359
9	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	15	1'09.794	0.526
10	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	14	1'09.855	0.587
11	Romain Grosjean	Dale Coyne Racing	18	1'09.880	0.612
12	Will Power	Team Penske	16	1'09.991	0.723
13	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'10.053	0.785
14	Ed Jones	Dale Coyne Racing	15	1'10.114	0.846
15	Jack Harvey	Meyer Shank Racing	15	1'10.175	0.907
16	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	17	1'10.245	0.977
17	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	17	1'10.315	1.047
18	Sébastien Bourdais	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	18	1'10.378	1.110
19	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	18	1'10.511	1.243
20	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	21	1'10.737	1.469
21	Takuma Sato	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	15	1'10.767	1.499
22	Max Chilton	Carlin	17	1'10.784	1.516
23	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	17	1'10.903	1.635
24	Charlie Kimball	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	16	1'11.061	1.793
25	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	22	1'11.118	1.850
26	Oliver Askew	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	8	1'11.225	1.957
27	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	20	1'11.437	2.169
28	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	18	1'11.796	2.528
View full results