The final visit of the year to IndyCar’s home track of Indianapolis Motor Speedway got underway on Friday with an early morning practice session.
After a time when virtually nobody on track, mostly due to not having enough allocated tires to use for the weekend, drivers put in as many laps as they were allowed.
With only one practice before qualifying, there was precious little time to get the car dialed in before the fastest laps of the weekend would be set.
Graham Rahal was the fastest of the morning, setting a lap around the familiar course in 1:09.8421.
Close behind in second was Felix Rosenqvist, as he completed his own lap less than a tenth of a second slower than the top time.
Christian Lundgaard was third, continuing his good record at the IMS road course and giving Rahal Letterman Lanigan two cars in the top three positions.
The team-mate theme continued with Alexander Rossi setting the fourth fastest time in his Arrow McLaren Chevy. The points leader Alex Palou rounded out the top five with his lap.
The session was relatively uneventful save for a number of lockups under braking. Firestone brought a slightly stiffer tire to the event this year, which could have contributed to the mistakes.
There was one stoppage during the 75-minute session, when Pato O’Ward spun out of turn 13 and needed assistance to get going again.
As a result of needing to be rescued from the manicured grass, O’Ward was forced to sit out for the next five minutes of the session.
Linus Lundqvist was impressive once again, finishing 13th in the opening run for his second ever IndyCar event. Marcus Armstrong was the quickest rookie with the 11th best time, and they both will be ones to watch throughout the remainder of the weekend.
A few of the series’ top drivers struggled to get a handle of the pace, including Colton Herta and Josef Newgarden.
Both drivers were outside of the top 20, and will have a lot to troubleshoot before they take to the track again in just two hours’ time.
The 27 drivers will take to the track next for knockout qualifying, which takes place at 12:30 PM Eastern Time.
