The NTT IndyCar Series completed its first official session of the Month of May Friday morning, with a practice session on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
With the first action of the day taking place early in the morning, temperatures were a bit cooler than can be expected the rest of the weekend.
Winds were gusty as well, which pushed drivers around the track a bit as they looked to get a solid baseline setup on their cars.
The obstacles were no worry for Alex Palou, however, as the champion set the fastest time of the opening session.
Palou completed a lap of the 2.44-mile course in 1:10.0904, which was a tenth of a second quicker than everyone else.
Graham Rahal was second quick, with his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda going well on the smooth track, just as it usually does.
The veteran typically does well at this track and is on a run this season that he would love to continue through this weekend.
Kyle Kirkwood was third quick with Felix Rosenqvist settling into the fourth position.
Fifth on the timesheets was David Malukas, who is sporting a throwback Penske livery this weekend to honor Will Power’s popular paint scheme a few years ago.
There were no interruptions to the session, and 555 laps were turned in total from the 25 drivers.
Tricky track
Though the track is very familiar to drivers on account of the frequent events held in the series’ hometown, the surface is very sensitive to ambient conditions and often presents a fresh challenge each event.
Alexander Rossi was one driver that struggled in his Ed Carpenter Racing Chevy, and was at a loss as to why his car was not as good as it was in the test last Fall.
He still finished eighth on the time sheets, but his crew will be poring over the data to find how to make the car work better.
A couple different cars went out on track with a bit of extra equipment still attached to their cars.
Kyle Kirkwood was first to hit the track with a rubber rear wing tool mat cover still attached to the car.
Interestingly, Mick Schumacher’s crew left the exact same piece on his car later in the session.
The common piece is frequently used to protect the wing from damage while the crew is servicing the car, and appeared to simply be forgotten by the team.
Both drivers had to complete their lap slowly so as not to damage their cars or have the piece fly off.
There seemed to be nothing in common causing the two similar incidents aside from sheer coincidence, and no damage seemed to come from the mistakes.
Drivers will be back on track at 1:00 this afternoon for another practice session, followed by qualifying later in the day.
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