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IndyCar: Herta tops opening practice for the Acura GP of Long Beach

Posted by AR1 staff

Andretti Autosport’s best driver, Colton Herta, coming off a dominant win last weekend at Laguna Seca, turned the fastest lap in opening practice for the Acura GP of Long Beach IndyCar race.

Herta’s fast lap of 1m09.268s was 0.1664s faster than the Penske Chevy of Simon Pagenaud, who is driving for his ride in 2022.

Simon Pagenaud 2nd quick

Points leader Alex Palou was 3rd fastest 0.18s behind Herta.

“It was a good session,” Palou said. “I like the track. It was all about getting to know the track and see how that No. 10 NTT DATA car was handling. I’m comfortable and ready to push tomorrow.”

Alex Palou

Felix Rosenqvist and Ryan Hunter-Reay, both driving like there’s no tomorrow,  to land a ride in 2022, rounded out the top-5.

While Rosenqvist found speed, his championship-contending teammate Pato O’Ward struggled in practice. O’Ward is second in the championship standings, 35 points behind Palou. But he ended up 16th in the 28-car field at 1:10.2451 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.

“We need to work,” an agitated O’Ward said after the session. “We just need to sort something out, find time.”

Pato O’Ward

The third title contender, two-time series champion Josef Newgarden, was 10th at 1:09.8557 in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden spun early in the session after losing traction while running over a bump entering Turn 9, but he continued without damage to his car.

Newgarden is 48 points behind Palou in third and must win the NTT P1 Award, race and lead the most laps while Palou finishes 25th or worse to have a chance to pull off an improbable title charge.

Practice 1 Results

Pos No Name Time Diff Gap Speed Engine Team
1 26 Colton Herta 1:09.2680 0.000s 0.000s 102.281 Honda Andretti Autosport
2 22 Simon Pagenaud 1:09.4334 0.1654 0.1654 102.037 Chevy Team Penske
3 10 Alex Palou 1:09.4554 0.1874 0.0220 102.005 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
4 7 Felix Rosenqvist 1:09.4870 0.2190 0.0316 101.959 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
5 28 Ryan Hunter-Reay 1:09.5154 0.2474 0.0284 101.917 Honda Andretti Autosport
6 06 Helio Castroneves 1:09.5703 0.3023 0.0549 101.837 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
7 3 Scott McLaughlin 1:09.6212 0.3532 0.0509 101.762 Chevy Team Penske
8 29 James Hinchcliffe 1:09.6276 0.3596 0.0064 101.753 Honda Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
9 27 Alexander Rossi 1:09.7940 0.5260 0.1664 101.510 Honda Andretti Autosport
10 2 Josef Newgarden 1:09.8557 0.5877 0.0617 101.420 Chevy Team Penske
11 51 Romain Grosjean 1:09.8807 0.6127 0.0250 101.384 Honda Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
12 12 Will Power 1:09.9916 0.7236 0.1109 101.224 Chevy Team Penske
13 9 Scott Dixon 1:10.0535 0.7855 0.0619 101.134 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
14 18 Ed Jones 1:10.1145 0.8465 0.0610 101.046 Honda Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
15 60 Jack Harvey 1:10.1758 0.9078 0.0613 100.958 Honda Meyer Shank Racing
16 5 Pato O’Ward 1:10.2451 0.9771 0.0693 100.858 Chevy Arrow McLaren SP
17 8 Marcus Ericsson 1:10.3153 1.0473 0.0702 100.758 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
18 14 Sebastien Bourdais 1:10.3788 1.1108 0.0635 100.667 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
19 15 Graham Rahal 1:10.5113 1.2433 0.1325 100.478 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
20 21 Rinus VeeKay 1:10.7374 1.4694 0.2261 100.156 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
21 30 Takuma Sato 1:10.7675 1.4995 0.0301 100.114 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
22 59 Max Chilton 1:10.7844 1.5164 0.0169 100.090 Chevy Carlin
23 20 Conor Daly 1:10.9036 1.6356 0.1192 99.922 Chevy Ed Carpenter Racing
24 11 Charlie Kimball 1:11.0619 1.7939 0.1583 99.699 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises
25 77 Callum Ilott 1:11.1181 1.8501 0.0562 99.620 Chevy Juncos Hollinger Racing
26 45 Oliver Askew 1:11.2253 1.9573 0.1072 99.470 Honda Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
27 48 Jimmie Johnson 1:11.4371 2.1691 0.2118 99.175 Honda Chip Ganassi Racing
28 4 Dalton Kellett 1:11.7969 2.5289 0.3598 98.678 Chevy AJ Foyt Enterprises