Laguna Seca IndyCar: Palou heads McLaughlin in warm-up

Drivers spent the session either scrubbing sets of tires or testing how long their tires last on the abrasive WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Pato O’Ward saw a drop off of around 2.5 seconds running a dozen laps on the Firestone alternates on his Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolet, Rinus VeeKay saw seven second fall-off in his Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevrolet over 18 laps also on the softer rubber.

On alternate tires, Alex Palou ahead of probably his final event for Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda, set a best time of 1min12.9318sec. The outgoing champion will be starting the race from 11^th, having received a six-place grid drop due to an early change to a fifth Honda.

McLaughlin of Team Penske-Chevrolet finished second, with a time set on Firestone primaries, ahead of Alexander Rossi who will begin his final race for Andretti Autosport-Honda from third on the grid.

David Malukas, seeking to claim the Rookie of the Year title from sixth on the grid, was fourth fastest ahead of another Andretti car, Devlin DeFrancesco’s.

VeeKay’s best effort on his run netted sixth fastest ahead of Felix Rosenqvist (AMSP) and Chip Ganassi Racing’s main title contender today, Scott Dixon.

Colton Herta fell off the track exiting Turn 10 but got into ninth, just ahead of teammate Romain Grosjean who’ll start from fourth alongside another teammate, Rossi.

The green flag drops on the IndyCar finale at 12.30pm local (Pacific) time. Will Power starts from pole and has a 21 point lead over Scott Dixon and Josef Newgarden, who starts from 25^th after a spin in qualifying.

Cla	Driver	Team	Laps	Time	Gap	Mph
1	Alex Palou	Chip Ganassi Racing	17	1'12.9318		110.470
2	Scott McLaughlin	Team Penske	23	1'13.4435	0.5117	109.701
3	Alexander Rossi	Andretti Autosport	19	1'13.5703	0.6385	109.512
4	David Malukas	Dale Coyne Racing	22	1'13.6474	0.7156	109.397
5	Devlin DeFrancesco	Andretti Autosport	17	1'13.7738	0.8420	109.210
6	Rinus van Kalmthout	Ed Carpenter Racing	18	1'13.7992	0.8674	109.172
7	Felix Rosenqvist	Arrow McLaren SP	20	1'13.8478	0.9160	109.100
8	Scott Dixon	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'13.8854	0.9536	109.045
9	Colton Herta	Andretti Autosport	14	1'13.9340	1.0022	108.973
10	Romain Grosjean	Andretti Autosport	18	1'14.0163	1.0845	108.852
11	Simon Pagenaud	Meyer Shank Racing	16	1'14.0920	1.1602	108.740
12	Marcus Ericsson	Chip Ganassi Racing	18	1'14.2023	1.2705	108.579
13	Callum Ilott	Juncos Hollinger Racing	20	1'14.2863	1.3545	108.456
14	Patricio O'Ward	Arrow McLaren SP	23	1'14.3414	1.4096	108.376
15	Graham Rahal	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	17	1'14.3951	1.4633	108.297
16	Jack Harvey	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	18	1'14.4042	1.4724	108.284
17	Christian Lundgaard	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing	18	1'14.6869	1.7551	107.874
18	Will Power	Team Penske	19	1'14.6983	1.7665	107.858
19	Josef Newgarden	Team Penske	18	1'15.0707	2.1389	107.323
20	Conor Daly	Ed Carpenter Racing	17	1'15.0733	2.1415	107.319
21	Takuma Sato	Dale Coyne Racing	19	1'15.0893	2.1575	107.296
22	Kyle Kirkwood	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	19	1'15.2001	2.2683	107.138
23	Simona de Silvestro	Paretta Autosport	18	1'15.5574	2.6256	106.632
24	Helio Castroneves	Meyer Shank Racing	16	1'15.7477	2.8159	106.364
25	Jimmie Johnson	Chip Ganassi Racing	17	1'15.8677	2.9359	106.195
26	Dalton Kellett	A.J. Foyt Enterprises	17	1'16.1983	3.2665	105.735
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