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Herta improves, stays top after Thermal IndyCar test Day 1

Colton Herta remained fastest of the 27 IndyCar drivers taking part in the preseason test at Thermal Club near Palm Springs, California.

Watch: Herta improves, stays top after Thermal IndyCar test Day 1

The Andretti Autosport-Honda ace lapped the 17-turn 2.9-mile course in 1min39.3721sec, clocking an average speed of 111.110mph, on his 17th of 23 laps.

However, unlike this morning’s session, several other drivers broke beneath the 100sec barrier, and his nearest pursuer was Rahal Letterman Lanigan-Honda’s sophomore Christian Lundgaard, a mere 0.0046sec in arrears, despite losing five minutes of track time as punishment for bringing out a red flag with a spin.

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s Alex Palou, the 2021 IndyCar champion, was third fastest, ahead of another Andretti driver, Romain Grosjean.

Reigning and two-time IndyCar champion, Team Penske’s Will Power, was fastest of the Chevrolet runners, 0.1969sec off top spot with his 23rd of 26 laps, narrowly edging his longtime rival Scott Dixon in the second Ganassi entry.

The Juncos Hollinger Racing-Chevrolet team showed superbly, with Callum Ilott clocking seventh fastest, and multiple TC2000 champion Agustin Canapino, a rookie in open-wheel racing of any kind, finishing the day 20th. He did cause one of five red flags this afternoon with a spin and stall, but this could not detract from his on-track effort. Canapino’s best time was little more than one second slower than Herta’s benchmark and around 0.7sec slower than Ilott.

Simon Pagenaud, fresh off his Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona win, was ninth fastest for Meyer Shank Racing-Honda.

Fastest rookie was former Formula 2 winner Marcus Armstrong, who will campaign the #11 Ganassi entry on road and street courses this year, and cede his seat to Takuma Sato for the ovals. However, he did cause the fifth and final red flag when his car stopped at pit entry at the close of the session.

Aside from Armstrong, Canapino, and Lundgaard, the other reds were caused by rookie Sting Ray Robb (Dale Coyne Racing-Honda) and Felix Rosenqvist (Arrow McLaren-Chevrolet), the latter of whom also spun this morning.

Kyle Kirkwood’s failure to set a representative time in his Andretti car was due to a failed clutch.

Testing resumes at 9am local (Pacific) time on Friday.

P

Name

FTime

Diff

FL

Laps

FSpeed

Engine

Tire

Team

1

Colton Herta

1:39.3721

1:39.3721

17

23

111.110

Honda

P

Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian

2

Christian Lundgaard

1:39.3767

0.0046

26

29

111.105

Honda

P

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

3

Alex Palou

1:39.3970

0.0249

18

28

111.082

Honda

P

Chip Ganassi Racing

4

Romain Grosjean

1:39.4826

0.1105

19

25

110.986

Honda

P

Andretti Autosport

5

Will Power

1:39.5690

0.1969

23

26

110.890

Chevy

P

Team Penske

6

Scott Dixon

1:39.6211

0.2490

18

18

110.832

Honda

P

Chip Ganassi Racing

7

Callum Ilott

1:39.6673

0.2952

5

26

110.781

Chevy

P

Juncos Hollinger Racing

8

Scott McLaughlin

1:39.7657

0.3936

23

23

110.671

Chevy

P

Team Penske

9

Simon Pagenaud

1:39.7862

0.4141

18

23

110.649

Honda

P

Meyer Shank Racing

10

Marcus Armstrong

1:39.9077

0.5356

19

21

110.514

Honda

P

Chip Ganassi Racing

11

Rinus VeeKay

1:39.9408

0.5687

20

21

110.477

Chevy

P

Ed Carpenter Racing

12

Marcus Ericsson

1:39.9746

0.6025

13

24

110.440

Honda

P

Chip Ganassi Racing

13

Devlin DeFrancesco

1:39.9805

0.6084

29

29

110.434

Honda

P

Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport

14

David Malukas

1:40.0088

0.6367

25

27

110.402

Honda

P

Dale Coyne Racing with HMD

15

Pato O'Ward

1:40.0468

0.6747

15

24

110.360

Chevy

P

Arrow McLaren

16

Alexander Rossi

1:40.1446

0.7725

6

11

110.253

Chevy

P

Arrow McLaren

17

Josef Newgarden

1:40.3516

0.9795

21

26

110.025

Chevy

P

Team Penske

18

Jack Harvey

1:40.3712

0.9991

7

21

110.004

Honda

P

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

19

Felix Rosenqvist

1:40.3928

1.0207

5

18

109.980

Chevy

P

Arrow McLaren

20

Agustin Canapino

1:40.4464

1.0743

30

30

109.921

Chevy

P

Juncos Holling Racing

21

Graham Rahal

1:40.5516

1.1795

3

22

109.806

Honda

P

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing

22

Conor Daly

1:40.5622

1.1901

20

21

109.795

Chevy

P

Ed Carpenter Racing

23

Santino Ferrucci

1:40.5724

1.2003

15

15

109.784

Chevy

P

AJ Foyt Enterprises

24

Helio Castroneves

1:40.7349

1.3628

12

32

109.607

Honda

P

Meyer Shank Racing

25

Sting Ray Robb

1:41.1557

1.7836

29

31

109.151

Honda

P

Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR

26

Benjamin Pedersen

1:41.5312

2.1591

20

25

108.747

Chevy

P

AJ Foyt Enterprises

27

Kyle Kirkwood

2:01.4916

0.0000

1

1

90.880

Honda

Po

Andretti Autosport

 

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