After two hours and 34 minutes of delay, Gasoline Alley finally had engines running as practice for the Indy 500 began.
For some, it was the first time that the hybrid had ran around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval. 34 drivers were going to attempt to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 after last weekend’s Sonsio GP.
Of these 34, eight were previously winners, including Josef Newgarden, who is aiming to pull off the three-peat, which has never been done before. There are four rookies and seven one-off entries.
Immediately the track was full of cars, although they all were on install laps where they would go out and come back in after one or two laps. This was evidenced by Alexander Rossi having the fastest speed of only 143.12 mph. Four drivers did more than one lap in the opening five minutes which were Rossi, Conor Daly, Scott McLaughlin and Will Power. Sting Ray Robb then set a slightly quicker speed, but again, it was still relatively slow in comparison to the pole speed of 234.220 mph by Scott McLaughlin.
The first competitive times at the Indy 500
The first competitive time was from Marcus Armstrong, who set a speed of 217.260 mph. He was quickly followed by 2014 Indy 500 winner Ryan Hunter-Reay. Speaking of Indy 500 winners, Marcus Ericsson set a 215 mph speed. Hunter-Reay was straight on it as he once again improved with a 217.712. Slowly the drivers were getting to quicker times.
Ericsson, McLaughlin and Jack Harvey set 217s and 216s to go third, fourth and fifth 13 minutes in. Marco Andretti, who is looking to end the curse this year, went sixth.
McLaughlin and Harvey both then pipped Hunter-Reay. To compare, the quickest time was a 229.107 from Scott Dixon in the first practice.
The first time to break into the 220s soon followed, as Newgarden set a 221.466 before going even quicker with a 224.319, getting a tow from Kyffin Simpson to help. Dixon then also got a 224, but was slightly down on Newgarden.
Kyle Larson, who is doing ‘Double Duty’ this year, set a 220.689 before improving to a 221.207. Dixon went quickest with a 225.059 getting a tow from Robb to help.
A flurry of times
In the opening 20 minutes, 19 drivers set speeds in the 210s and 220s: Dixon, Newgarden, Larson, Louis Foster, Christian Lundgaard, Simpson, McLaughlin, Nolan Siegel, David Malukas, Rossi, championship leader Alex Palou, Christian Rasmussen, Andretti, Felix Rosenqvist, Rinus VeeKay, Harvey, Hunter-Reay, Ericsson and Armstrong. Soon after, Armstrong and Palou went into the 220s. DeFrancesco set a 217.682 and then improved by almost two mph.
Rosenqvist set a 220.034 and Robb set a 219.589. The top ten after 24 minutes was Dixon, Newgarden, Armstrong, Malukas, Rosenqvist, Herta, Larson, Lundgaard, Ferrucci and Robb.
Most of the field had now set times. 26 drivers had set times with a difference of 7.7 miles per hour from 1st to 26th.
Practice 1 was all about gaining knowledge and getting runs in on the track. Already drivers were getting tows, and what was so incredible was that Larson in seventh was only one mph quicker than Palou in 15th.
Only Jacob Abel, Pato O’Ward, Kyle Kirkwood, Graham Rahal, Takuma Sato, Robert Shwartzman and Callum Ilott hadn’t set competitive times with 3 hours left.
O’Ward’s first time was a 218.478, which wasn’t too bad all things considered. He gradually got up to speed, going .5 mph quicker on the next lap.
A procession then happened, as McLaren duo Nolan Siegel and O’Ward were the only drivers still on track.
Palou then had his car towed back into the paddock, which signalled a break for the reigning champion.
Rahal was having some setup changes for his car. Rahal famously failed to qualify two years ago, but raced after Stefan Wilson withdrew due to injury.
Abel got his first 200+mph time on the board, albeit it was barely above 200mph. The other driver who improved was Daly who went tenth and then improved again to seventh with a 221.412. Daly aims to become the first Indiana native to win the 500 since Wilbur Shaw in 1940. Castroneves, who looks to become the greatest driver in the history of the 500, went second with a 224.523 mph average speed. Abel improved to a 211.823 and again to a 216.229. In the next few minutes he got up to a 218.994.
Hunter-Reay got up to seventh with a 221.860 and Ericsson then jumped him and fellow Swede Rosenqvist to go sixth in the 222.5s. McLaughlin also improved, going 15th.
Abel had the first moment, as he went two wheels below the white line, but got away with it.
Experience vs rookies
While the Prema cars were still not out of the pitlane, Ilott was on pit lane. Prema were still setting up their first speedway package.
Power and Siegel improved to 13th and 15th respectively. Once again, the track became quite quiet with almost an hour completed.
Experience did seem quite important, as five of the top ten had won the 500 previously (Dixon, Castroneves, Newgarden, Ericsson and Hunter-Reay)
Harvey improved to 14th with a 220.947. Rahal finally got out onto the circuit with a 141.773. His first 200+ mph speed was a 215.220. He and O’Ward then both improved into the 219 mph average speed mark.
Kirkwood set a 216.264 mph speed for his first time. He got up to a 220.096 which moved him up to 18th.
Andretti moved up to 11th with a 221.578 and then Power went up to 10th in the 221.7s.
Two big times came in, as Hunter-Reay moved into sixth and Newgarden went quickest with the first 226mph speed before Harvey, usually behind the microphone and now being nicknamed ‘Hollywood Harvey’, moved to sixth on a 222.822.
A few minutes later, McLaughlin improved on Harvey’s time, as did Christian Rasmussen to go sixth and seventh in the 223.1s and 222.8s.
2015 winner Rossi went fourth with a 224.347, which meant that the top four was entirely made up of Indy 500 winners.
Two hours to go
With under two hours to go of Indy 500 practice, more cars took to the track, but Prema were still to make their debut. The cameras picked up the cars finally arriving, but with less than 90 minutes remaining, Callum Illot would have a hard task get meaningful data.
Scott Dixon moved into second place with an hour and a half to go, Scott McLaughlin slotting in behind. By now, drivers shifted onto longer runs. A gaggle of cars practiced following each other, and how to best to attack.
Kyffin Simpson found himself at the front of the field, but only for small number of corners before those behind steamed past.
McLauglin pulled into the pits after a 52-lap run, pleased with his performance so far. WIth an hour and 15 minutes to go, a full-course caution was thrown for a track inspection.
With an hour and four minutes to go, the cars took to the track once again. Robert Schwartzman finally took to the circuit, but he pulled back into the pits immediately. Both Prema cars were now on pit row, but not moving.
Palou went out for another run, and began scything through the cars on circuit, moving back into second place.
The final hour of Indy 500 practice
With just one hour to go of Indy 500 practice, drivers began to experiment with slipstreaming and understanding grip in traffic. Will Power received a drive-through and broke away from the pack to serve his punishment.
Previous Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson completed his 47-lap run and pulled into the pits to analyse the data. His lap time placed him in the top ten, but he admitted work was still needed.
Pato O’Ward was also out of the car, running towards the bottom of the timesheets. He confirmed that he and Arrow McLaren had yet to conduct traffic or high-performance runs.
With 40 minutes to go, Will Power jumped to the top of the timesheets. However, the weather once again played its hand, with lightning in the vicinity curtailing running for the day.
- Will Power
- Josef Newgarden
- Alex Palou
- Scott Dixon
- Scott McLauglin
- Helio Castroneves
- Alexander Rossi
- Marcus Armstrong
- Marcus Ericsson
- Marco Andretti
- Christian Rasmussen
- David Malukas
- Jack Harvey
- Ryan Hunter Reay
- Ed Carpenter
- Colton Herta
- Sting Ray Robb
- Felix Rosenqvist
- Kyle Kirkwood
- Nolan Seigel
- Conor Daly
- Kyffin Simpson
- Christian Lungaard
- Kyle Larson
- Devlin DeFrancesco
- Graham Rahal
- Santino Ferrucci
- Jacob Abel
- Pato O’Ward
- Louis Foster
- Takuma Sato
- Rinus Veekay
- Robert Shwartzman
- Callum Illott
