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Edition

USA

Herta leads opening session in first IndyCar test at Thermal

The 2.9-mile Thermal Club track near Palm Springs in California saw all 27 fulltime entries hit the track, and Andretti Autosport-Honda star Colton Herta led the way.

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Honda

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport with Curb-Agajanian Honda

IndyCar Series

The two-and-a-half-hour session saw two red flags – both for harmless spin-and-stalls by Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet and Helio Castroneves of Meyer Shank Racing-Honda.

With his 17th lap, Herta became the first driver to crack the 100sec barrier with a 1min39.9303sec effort, an average of 110.489mph.

That was just enough to pip his new teammate, series sophomore Kyle Kirkwood, by 0.0933sec, and the Meyer Shank-Honda of Simon Pagenaud by 0.1875sec.

Six drivers turned 110mph laps, with Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay proving fastest of the Chevrolet runners, ahead of Team Penske’s pair of two-time champions, Josef Newgarden and Will Power.

Romain Grosjean was seventh, just ahead of Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s rookie and road/street course specialist Marcus Armstrong, who edged his six-time title-winning teammate and New Zealand compatriot Scott Dixon by a mere 0.0628sec.

Jack Harvey was fastest of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Hondas in 10th, ahead of 2021 champion Alex Palou (Ganassi) and Scott McLaughlin in the third Penske.

Dale Coyne Racing-Honda rookie Sting Ray Robb turned the most laps at 32, while fellow rookie Agustin Canapino, a touring car legend in his native Argentina, did an impressive job to grab 22nd fastest, only one second slower than his Juncos Hollinger Racing teammate Callum Ilott.

P

Name

FTime

Diff

FL

Laps

LapTime

FSpeed

Engine

Team

1

Colton Herta

1:39.9303

1:39.9303

17

18

1:46.5651

110.489

Honda

Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian

2

Kyle Kirkwood

1:40.0236

0.0933

20

20

1:40.0236

110.386

Honda

Andretti Autosport

3

Simon Pagenaud

1:40.1178

0.1875

19

19

1:40.1178

110.282

Honda

Meyer Shank Racing

4

Rinus VeeKay

1:40.1913

0.2610

22

22

1:40.1913

110.201

Chevy

Ed Carpenter Racing

5

Josef Newgarden

1:40.2062

0.2759

23

24

1:55.4349

110.185

Chevy

Team Penske

6

Will Power

1:40.3527

0.4224

24

24

1:40.3527

110.024

Chevy

Team Penske

7

Romain Grosjean

1:40.3810

0.4507

5

10

1:42.2825

109.993

Honda

Andretti Autosport

8

Marcus Armstrong

1:40.5302

0.5999

24

24

1:40.5302

109.830

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

9

Scott Dixon

1:40.5930

0.6627

6

18

1:43.2968

109.761

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

10

Jack Harvey

1:40.6046

0.6743

12

24

1:42.8552

109.748

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

11

Alex Palou

1:40.6435

0.7132

11

15

1:43.3530

109.706

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

12

Scott McLaughlin

1:40.6552

0.7249

9

21

1:42.3503

109.693

Chevy

Team Penske

13

David Malukas

1:40.9113

0.9810

18

28

1:43.5054

109.415

Honda

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

14

Pato O'Ward

1:40.9459

1.0156

5

6

1:47.0089

109.377

Chevy

Arrow McLaren

15

Felix Rosenqvist

1:41.0030

1.0727

11

16

1:41.1082

109.316

Chevy

Arrow McLaren

16

Callum Ilott

1:41.1045

1.1742

8

18

9:30.7142

109.206

Chevy

Juncos Hollinger Racing

17

Marcus Ericsson

1:41.1785

1.2482

9

10

1:46.3434

109.126

Honda

Chip Ganassi Racing

18

Christian Lundgaard

1:41.3312

1.4009

6

16

12:21.627

108.962

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

19

Alexander Rossi

1:41.5103

1.5800

8

15

1:45.0951

108.769

Chevy

Arrow McLaren

20

Conor Daly

1:41.5225

1.5922

10

17

1:42.0697

108.756

Chevy

Ed Carpenter Racing

21

Devlin DeFrancesco

1:41.6003

1.6700

6

18

1:44.1348

108.673

Honda

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

22

Agustin Canapino

1:42.1969

2.2666

18

18

1:42.1969

108.039

Chevy

Juncos Holling Racing

23

Graham Rahal

1:42.2185

2.2882

10

17

1:49.1656

108.016

Honda

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

24

Sting Ray Robb

1:42.2770

2.3467

32

32

1:42.2770

107.954

Honda

Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

25

Santino Ferrucci

1:42.3688

2.4385

12

13

1:44.2352

107.857

Chevy

AJ Foyt Enterprises

26

Helio Castroneves

1:42.4730

2.5427

9

13

1:42.9485

107.747

Honda

Meyer Shank Racing

27

Benjamin Pedersen

1:43.0742

3.1439

11

11

1:43.0742

107.119

Chevy

AJ Foyt Enterprises

 

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