IndyCar: Herta tops opening Pre-Season Test Session

Colton Herta turned a lap of 1m39.9303s to edge out his Andretti Autosport Honda teammate Kyle Kirkwood in the first pre-season NTT IndyCar Series test session at the Thermal Club, in Thermal, CA.

Herta was the only driver to dip into the 1m39s bracket.

Simon Pagenaud was third in his Meyer Shank Honda to give Honda powered cars a 1-2-3.

We had two red flags during the 2 1/2 hours of green flag time. The first is for Felix Rosenqvist, and the second is for Helio Castroneves. Both drivers earned a five-minute penalty for causing a red condition.

Lucille Dust reporting from the Thermal Club

Session 1 Results

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	Laps	Speed	Engine	Team
1	26	Colton Herta	1:39.9303	0.000s	0.000s	18	110.489	Honda	Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian
2	27	Kyle Kirkwood	1:40.0236	0.0933	0.0933	20	110.386	Honda	Andretti Autosport
3	60	Simon Pagenaud	1:40.1178	0.1875	0.0942	20	110.282	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
4	21	Rinus VeeKay	1:40.1913	0.2610	0.0735	23	110.201	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
5	2	Josef Newgarden	1:40.2062	0.2759	0.0149	24	110.185	Chevy	Team Penske
6	12	Will Power	1:40.3527	0.4224	0.1465	24	110.024	Chevy	Team Penske
7	28	Romain Grosjean	1:40.3810	0.4507	0.0283	10	109.993	Honda	Andretti Autosport
8	11	Marcus Armstrong	1:40.5302	0.5999	0.1492	24	109.830	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
9	9	Scott Dixon	1:40.5930	0.6627	0.0628	18	109.761	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
10	30	Jack Harvey	1:40.6046	0.6743	0.0116	24	109.748	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
11	10	Alex Palou	1:40.6435	0.7132	0.0389	15	109.706	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
12	3	Scott McLaughlin	1:40.6552	0.7249	0.0117	21	109.693	Chevy	Team Penske
13	18	David Malukas	1:40.9113	0.9810	0.2561	28	109.415	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
14	5	Pato O’Ward	1:40.9459	1.0156	0.0346	6	109.377	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
15	6	Felix Rosenqvist	1:41.0030	1.0727	0.0571	17	109.316	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
16	8	Marcus Ericsson	1:41.0369	1.1066	0.0339	11	109.279	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
17	77	Callum Ilott	1:41.1045	1.1742	0.0676	19	109.206	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
18	45	Christian Lundgaard	1:41.3312	1.4009	0.2267	17	108.962	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
19	7	Alexander Rossi	1:41.5103	1.5800	0.1791	15	108.769	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
20	20	Conor Daly	1:41.5225	1.5922	0.0122	18	108.756	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
21	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:41.6003	1.6700	0.0778	18	108.673	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
22	78	Agustin Canapino	1:42.1969	2.2666	0.5966	18	108.039	Chevy	Juncos Holling Racing
23	15	Graham Rahal	1:42.2185	2.2882	0.0216	17	108.016	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
24	51	Sting Ray Robb	1:42.2770	2.3467	0.0585	32	107.954	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
25	14	Santino Ferrucci	1:42.3688	2.4385	0.0918	13	107.857	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
26	06	Helio Castroneves	1:42.4730	2.5427	0.1042	13	107.747	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
27	55	Benjamin Pedersen	1:43.0742	3.1439	0.6012	12	107.119	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises