The IndyCar race weekend in began with the first practice session of the Grand Prix of Alabama at Barber Motorsports Park, the final race before the double header of Indianapolis and the first in the busy‘Month of May’.
Kyle Kirkwood won last time out in Long Beach, but Alex Palou remains in the championship lead.
The day was split into a 40-minute session with the entire grid and two 12-minute sessions with the grid split in half following a five-minute break. This gave teams the opportunity to test out the set-up on a quieter track, which is crucial, especially as there may be a spanner in the works for the teams, mixed conditions, which could mean setups are all the more important.
The session start
The session began and after a couple of warm up laps, the session properly got going. The first laps were set by the most successful team at Alabama as Penske’s Scott McLaughlin set a 1:11.1531. McLaughlin and teammate Josef Newgarden traded fastest laps, as Newgarden went top with a 1:10.4026 before McLaughlin pipped him with a 1:08.9836. Penske has eight wins in 14 races at Barber.
McLaughlin went off-track, having a ‘full arm of opposite lock’ as James Hinchcliffe said. Moments later, Palou went top with a 1:08.8777 and David Malukas set a 1:09.5073. Newgarden went back top with a 1:08.7206 before McLaughlin too set a 1:08.3946. In the first ten minutes, it was McLaughlin, Newgarden, Palou, David Malukas, Kyffin Simpson, Sting Ray Robb, Alexander Rossi, Nolan Siegel, Conor Daly and Kirkwood.
Meanwhile, McLaughlin, the favourite for the win as the back-to-back defending race winner, had his second incident, having a half spin before the pit entry.
Ganassi’s Palou moved up into second, which showed that Penske were beatable for a few moments until Newgarden improved. Devlin deFrancesco and Siegel went fourth and fifth before Rossi went fourth and Simpson went sixth. Louis Foster then set a 1:08.9504 to go up to fifth, with Siegel improving to fourth.
Kirkwood set a time which was good enough for fourth. Palou, who is known as a road and street course expert, then went first. Kirkwood’s teammate Marcus Ericsson went to third. Graham Rahal set a solid time, going sixth before Santino Ferrucci pipped him.
After 17 busy minutes, Meyer Shank Racing (MSR) got on the board – Marcus Armstrong went fifth and Felix Rosenqvist went tenth, with Armstrong three tenths ahead – Rahal also improved.
Halfway
Two thirds of Penske and Andretti had finished their opening runs. Now it was Pato O’Ward, Colton Herta, Scott Dixon, Jacob Abel and Will Power out on track.
Power finally showed his pace from practice in Long Beach, going first with a 1:08.1886. Of the top ten, it was three Penskes (Power first, McLaughlin fourth, Newgarden eighth), three Andrettis (Herta went third, Kirkwood in fifth and Ericsson in sixth), one Ganassi (Palou in second), one MSR (Armstrong in seventh), one Rahal Letterman Lanigan (Rahal in ninth) and one A.J. Foyt (Ferrucci in 10th).
Herta then went top with a 1:08.1 flat. Callum Ilott went wide at turn one, similar to what Will Power had done earlier. Felix Rosenqvist had a massive crash there in testing.
Now there was 15 minutes left of first practice.
After a stale few minutes, a driver finally improved inside the top ten, although it was just Ericsson marginally improving to pass Kirkwood for fifth in the times. Every driver was on a set of harder white (primary) tyres and the highest rookie of the three in the field was Foster in 15th.
McLaren were struggling. Siegel was in 12th, O’Ward in 16th and Christian Lundgaard in 24th. It was a total contrast to Thermal where they took a double podium. But, the best five lap averages were a different story, as they were 1-2 for five lap averages.
Final five minutes
Finally, there was a soft runner, as Ferrucci came out onto the track with the softs. Ericsson went top on the softs, being the first driver in the 1:07s with a 1:07.8495. Ferrucci went third on his softs with a 1:08.1808, showing how quick Herta was on the hards earlier. Ericsson improved again, setting a 1:07.7470. Andretti looked quick.
DeFrancesco then set a great time with a 1:07.9302 less than two tenths behind Ericsson. DeFrancesco was on the softs too.
Alexander Rossi and his time were having all sorts of set up issues, as they were suffering from understeer.
The final laps came in and it was Nolan Siegel who impressed, going third with a 1:08.0823. At the end of the opening part of the session it was Ericsson who was quickest. Following him were DeFrancesco, Siegel, Herta, Ferrucci, Power, Palou, McLaughlin, Kirkwood and Armstrong.
Final part of the session
Group one had Herta, Lundgaard, Foster, Daly, DeFrancesco, Rossi, Ferrucci, Power, Abel, Newgarden, Simpson, Dixon, Rosenqvist, Rahal and Robert Shwartzman.
Group one began and it took a few minutes for a competitive time to come in. Herta set a 1:07.8418 on the softs. Lundgaard set a 1:08.1954 which put him second in group one and seventh overall. Louis Foster went eighth and Conor Daly went up to tenth as well overall, going third and fourth in group one.
After a while of not much improvements, Rossi showed the changes had worked, going third overall and second in the session with a 1:07.809. Newgarden briefly went fourth, but Power then overtook him, going fourth overall and third in the session overall by 0.0335 seconds. Power then improved again and went third overall and second in the session.
The first big incident happened of the weekend, as Rosenqvist went off. He went off at turn two with a big lockup. He managed to keep going, using the grass as an escape route. Dixon, who has never won at Alabama, but taken six second place finishes, went eighth overall and fifth in the session.
Group two had Ericsson, Siegel, Palou, McLaughlin, Kirkwood, Armstrong, O’Ward, Christian Rasmussen, Robb, Ilott, Malukas and VeeKay.
It took until three and a half minutes left for a competitive time to be set,as Palou went fourth overall with a 1:07.7972 and first in the session. He followed this up with another great lap with a 1:07.7602. He was at the top in session two and second overall.
Here’s the overall practice results:
- Marcus Ericsson
- Alex Palou
- Colton Herta
- Will Power
- Alexander Rossi
- Josef Newgarden
- Devlin DeFrancesco
- Scott McLaughlin
- Nolan Siegel
- Scott Dixon
- Kyle Kirkwood
- Santino Ferrucci
- Christian Lundgaard
- Pato O’Ward
- Louis Foster
- Marcus Armstrong
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Graham Rahal
- Conor Daly
- Christian Rasmussen
- Callum Ilott
- David Malukas
- Rinus VeeKay
- Sting Ray Robb
- Kyffin Simpson
- Robert Shwartzman
- Jacob Abel
