IndyCar News: Palou tops opening practice at Thermal Club

Three-time series champion Alex Palou led the opening practice Friday for The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix, turning a top lap of 1 minute, 40.5486 seconds in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile natural terrain road course.

Palou led the 80-minute practice, which featured an open session and then two group sessions, in the tire tracks of his season-opening victory March 2 at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.

There’s also another ominous fact for Palou’s 26 rivals this weekend as The Thermal Club hosts its first NTT INDYCAR SERIES points-paying race: The Spaniard won the exhibition race here last year from the pole.

“A really good start to the weekend for the No. 10 DHL Honda team,” Palou said. “We didn’t get many laps because of some red flags, but the car rolled off really well considering it was very different to last year with different tires and the hybrid unit, and we didn’t test here this year.

“I’m really happy. There are some things to work on before we head to practice two tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to a nice weekend.”

Up next is another practice at 1 p.m. ET Saturday, followed by NTT P1 Award qualifying at 5:05 p.m. ET (both on FS1, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). The 65-lap race starts at 3 p.m. ET Sunday (FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Andretti Global couldn’t catch Palou but still produced the strongest start to the weekend of any team, taking the second, third and fourth spots on the speed chart with its three drivers.

Kyle Kirkwood ended up second overall in practice with a top lap of 1:40.6387 in the No. 27 Chili’s Honda, just .0901 of a second behind Palou. 2022 Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge winner Marcus Ericsson was third at 1:40.7370 in the No. 28 Bryant Honda, followed by Southern California native Colton Herta at 1:40.8439 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda, 0.3s behind Palou.

Second-year driver Christian Rasmussen rounded out the top five at 1:40.8728 in the No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet, 0.69s behind Palou.

Sixth fastest, Pato O’Ward, said “Done with Practice 1 in Thermal, and what can I say, it still destroys tires. We have a lot of data to look into for strategy for the race. For Qualifying, I don’t think we’re perfect, but we’re in a decent spot where we can work to get better and see where we stack up tomorrow. We’re definitely in a better window than we were last year.”

There was only significant incident during practice. Rookie Robert Shwartzman was forced to stop on track just past Turn 6 when a fire erupted in the rear of his No. 83 PREMA Racing Chevrolet. Shwartzman quickly climbed from the car and was unhurt.

Thermal Club Practice 1 Results

(R) Rookie