In the opening practice session for the much-anticipated Thermal Club IndyCar Grand Prix, Alex Palou stole the limelight with the fastest lap. He set a record time of 1m40.5486s in his No. 10 Honda, leaving all three Andretti Global drivers trailing closely.
Pushing Palou to the limit were Andretti’s Kyle Kirkwood finishing second in the No. 27 Honda, trailing by 0.0901s, Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Honda coming third, lagging by 0.1884s, and Colton Herta wrapping up the Honda-powered pack in the fourth position in the No. 26 car, behind by 0.2953s.
Christian Rasmussen of Ed Carpenter Racing, driving the No. 21 car, emerged as the top Chevy-powered contender, finishing fifth and lagging behind Palou by 0.3242s. Rounding up the top six was Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Chevy, trailing the fastest lap by 0.3606s.
The practice session, conducted under the clear blue skies, was interspersed with some dramatic moments. The teams initially completed installation laps, then returned to the pits to wait for the next 10 minutes. However, the session was soon interrupted by a red flag when Robert Schwartzman of PREMA Racing came to a halt with small flames emerging from the back of his No. 83 Chevy, courtesy of a powertrain issue.
Adding to the drama, another red flag was raised towards the close of the afternoon to clear the No. 30 Honda of Devlin DeFrancesco from Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, who appeared to stall in Turn 1 and could not drive away. His car was eventually lifted and towed away.
Despite the interruptions, the session saw a thrilling conclusion. With limited time left for the first group to go out and make another fast lap, Felix Rosenqvist of Meyer Shank Racing, who had been leading the group, was narrowly outpaced by Herta. In the second group, Palou set the bar high, a record which remained unbroken until the checkered flag.
Tires, which had been a major talking point of the event, didn’t garner as much attention as anticipated. The sporadic nature of the session and the paddock-wide strategy to preserve tire sets for the upcoming Saturday and Sunday meant that only a few drivers managed to complete more than a handful of laps on the primary and alternate compounds.
The day’s fastest times, recorded in the split groups, were achieved on alternate compounds. However, given the recent heavy rains that washed away all the rubber from the 3.067-mile, 17-turn road course, the speeds recorded were not particularly remarkable.
