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Practice report

Long Beach IndyCar: Herta, Dixon, Ericsson lead warm-up

Polesitter Colton Herta delivered the fastest lap of the raceday warm-up ahead of the 47th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the only driver to duck into the 65sec zone.

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian Honda

Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

Herta’s Andretti Autosport-Honda lapped the 1.968-mile course in 65.8645secs, an average speed of 107.566mph.

That left him over three-tenths clear of Scott Dixon and over half a second up on Marcus Ericsson, although the Chip Ganassi Racing-Hondas looked more competitive in race trim than in qualifying, when only Alex Palou made the Firestone Fast Six.

Meyer Shank Racing-Honda’s Simon Pagenaud, whose potential was not reflected by qualifying where he finished the session 10th, demonstrated again that he will be a podium contender as he moved into fourth.

Team Penske-Chevrolet’s Will Power went fifth fastest, the quickest driver of the session on primary tires and the quickest Chevy driver, and finished up just ahead of Andretti’s Romain Grosjean, who beat him to a Firestone Fast Six slot yesterday by 0.0001sec.

One of Power’s teammates was far less fortunate. Championship leader Scott McLaughlin, who will roll off ninth today, suffered a suspected broken header on his Penske-Chevrolet. His main frustration, he told NBC, was not being able to use the warm-up session to practice his in- and out-laps, getting his braking marks for pitlane and checking out tire degradation. For the latter, at least, he could lean on teammates Power and Josef Newgarden.

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD-Honda rookie David Malukas was an impressive seventh fastest, just ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing-Chevy’s Rinus VeeKay.

Meyer Shank Racing-Honda’s Helio Castroneves survived a lurid half-spin out of Turn 4, somehow keeping it off the concrete on either side and finished the session in ninth, ahead of Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevy’s Callum Ilott.

Graham Rahal was less lucky than Castroneves as he too lost it out of Turn 4, clipping his left-rear tire against the wall as he slid, breaking a toe-link and part of his rear wing. That caused a red flag with eight minutes to go, but the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing-Honda team performed impressively to return the #15 to the track before the checkered flag fell.

Dalton Kellett was another driver to endure an interesting warm-up, clipping the tires at Turn 8 and ripping off an advertising banner, and later being nudged by an overenthusiastic Takuma Sato in the second Coyne car. Kellett's AJ Foyt Racing-Chevy survived unscathed.

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will get the green flag at 12.45pm local (Pacific) time.

Cla Driver Team Laps Time Gap Mph
1 United States Colton Herta
United States Andretti Autosport 17 1'05.864 107.566
2 New Zealand Scott Dixon
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 20 1'06.192 0.327 107.034
3 Sweden Marcus Ericsson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 20 1'06.393 0.528 106.709
4 France Simon Pagenaud
United States Meyer Shank Racing 16 1'06.776 0.912 106.097
5 Australia Will Power
United States Team Penske 17 1'06.820 0.955 106.028
6 France Romain Grosjean
United States Andretti Autosport 16 1'06.831 0.967 106.010
7 United States David Malukas
Dale Coyne Racing with HMD 16 1'06.900 1.036 105.901
8 Netherlands Rinus van Kalmthout
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 20 1'06.914 1.049 105.879
9 Brazil Helio Castroneves
United States Meyer Shank Racing 18 1'06.940 1.076 105.837
10 United Kingdom Callum Ilott
Juncos Hollinger Racing 17 1'07.121 1.256 105.552
11 Mexico Patricio O'Ward
United States Arrow McLaren SP 20 1'07.174 1.309 105.469
12 United Kingdom Jack Harvey
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 17 1'07.208 1.344 105.415
13 Spain Alex Palou
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 20 1'07.238 1.373 105.368
14 United States Graham Rahal
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 14 1'07.312 1.447 105.253
15 United States Josef Newgarden
United States Team Penske 17 1'07.362 1.498 105.174
16 Denmark Christian Lundgaard
United States Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing 15 1'07.421 1.557 105.082
17 Canada Devlin DeFrancesco
United States Andretti Autosport 17 1'07.439 1.574 105.054
18 United States Alexander Rossi
United States Andretti Autosport 14 1'07.672 1.807 104.693
19 United States Conor Daly
United States Ed Carpenter Racing 19 1'07.823 1.959 104.459
20 Sweden Felix Rosenqvist
United States Arrow McLaren SP 17 1'07.848 1.984 104.421
21 United States Kyle Kirkwood
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 16 1'08.118 2.254 104.006
22 Japan Takuma Sato
United States Dale Coyne Racing 15 1'08.354 2.489 103.648
23 Canada Dalton Kellett
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 16 1'08.556 2.691 103.343
24 United States Jimmie Johnson
United States Chip Ganassi Racing 17 1'08.994 3.130 102.686
25 Colombia Tatiana Calderon
United States A.J. Foyt Enterprises 14 1'09.694 3.829 101.656
26 New Zealand Scott McLaughlin
United States Team Penske 2 3'25.464 2'19.599 34.482

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