IndyCar: Palou tops Monday Laguna Seca test

Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda’s defending IndyCar champion Alex Palou set best time during a 13-car test at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Monday.

Palou lapped the beautiful undulating 2.238-mile course in 1min11.441sec, a speed of 112.78mph.

His closest rivals were the Arrow McLaren SP-Chevrolets of Felix Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward who were 0.236 and 0.270sec adrift respectively.

Indy 500 champion Marcus Ericsson ran out of talent at Turn 6 and crashed. The #8 Ganassi Honda sustained damage to its left-rear corner and rear wing, but the Swede returned to the track in time to run a 71.824s to finish within four tenths of Palou.

Monday Test Times

Pos	No	Name	Time	Behind	Gap	FL	Laps	Speed	Engine	Team
1	10	Alex Palou	1:11.4406	0.000s	0.000s	73	110	112.776	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
2	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:11.6770	0.2364	0.2364	67	112	112.404	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
3	5	Pato O’Ward	1:11.7107	0.2701	0.0337	78	100	112.351	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
4	15	Graham Rahal	1:11.8018	0.3612	0.0911	94	96	112.209	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
5	8	Marcus Ericsson	1:11.8243	0.3837	0.0225	67	69	112.174	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
6	18	David Malukas	1:11.8938	0.4532	0.0695	66	107	112.065	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
7	9	Scott Dixon	1:11.9675	0.5269	0.0737	4	104	111.951	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
8	29	Devlin DeFrancesco	1:11.9996	0.5590	0.0321	69	72	111.901	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
9	77	Callum Ilott	1:12.0116	0.5710	0.0120	68	88	111.882	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
10	45	Jack Harvey	1:12.0618	0.6212	0.0502	66	80	111.804	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
11	30	Christian Lundgaard	1:12.2993	0.8587	0.2375	92	94	111.437	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
12	51	Takuma Sato	1:12.5317	1.0911	0.2324	87	88	111.080	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
13	48	Jimmie Johnson	1:13.4491	2.0085	0.9174	6	102	109.692	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing