IndyCar GP Indy: Palou fastest in first practice

The session was red flagged with just 1min38sec left of the guaranteed 45min time, as Helio Castroneves spun his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda at Turn 13, just after setting his fastest lap of the morning.

When the session restarted, it looked unlikely that anyone could get their tires up to temperature soon enough to make a difference to the fastest times, but Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda pair Alex Palou and Marcus Ericsson strapped on new tires to suddenly burst into first and sixth respectively.

Rookies are granted an extra set of tires in the opening session, but Ilott used them wisely, and with three minutes to go in the session, sneaked ahead of Power by 0.0684sec to claim what was then fastest time. The Briton lapped the 2.439-mile 14-turn road course in 1min10.4593sec, an average speed of 124.617mph.

Power, who has five wins and five pole positions on the Indianapolis road course, set his fastest time on the 10^th of 17 laps.

Graham Rahal was second quickest of the Honda drivers, slotting his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing entry into fourth ahead of the quicker of the two Arrow McLaren SP-Chevys, that of Felix Rosenqvist, who scored his first IndyCar pole at this venue in his rookie season of 2019.

Simon Pagenaud, who has won here three times, was seventh fastest ahead of Jack Harvey of RLL, who scored his (so far) only IndyCar podium at this track in the wet in 2019.

Colton Herta was quickest of the Andretti Autosport-Hondas, but down in 10^th, a hair quicker than AMSP’s winner of the previous round, Pato O’Ward.

The Ed Carpenter Racing pairing of Conor Daly and Rinus VeeKay were languishing down in 19^th and 21^st, a surprise given that the Dutch youngster won this race last year.

Jimmie Johnson was only 1.2sec off the ultimate pace, on a track where he first tested an IndyCar, and he was ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya in the third AMSP-Chevy.