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IndyCar: O’Ward tops Practice 1 for GMR Grand Prix

Lucille Dust

In the waning minutes of Practice 1 for the GMR Grand Prix all the drivers strapped on the soft red Firestone tires and the times came tumbling down.

Arrow McLaren Chevy driver Pato O’Ward turned a lap of 1m09.4981s to barely nip the RLL Honda of Christian Lundgaard by 0.0007s to lead the session.

“I’m happy to be here,” said O’Ward. “The start of a really busy month. So far we’ve had a strong start to the year. We’ve had a few near misses, I guess, on a couple wins we could have gotten here or there.

“All in all it’s been a very positive start compared to years past. I don’t think our approach is going to change much. We just need to, yeah, try and maximize this weekend, just like we’ve tried every other one, keep on going.”

Alex Palou was 3rd for Ganassi Racing ahead of Scott McLaughlin and Jack Harvey.

Colton Herta had to undergo and engine repair due to an oil leak and never turned a competitive lap.

Practice 1 Results

Pos No Name Time Behind Gap FL Laps Speed Engine Tire Team
1 5 Pato O’Ward 1:09.4981 0.000s 0.000s 14 16 126.340 Chevy A Arrow McLaren
2 45 Christian Lundgaard 1:09.4988 0.0007 0.0007 26 31 126.339 Honda A Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
3 10 Alex Palou 1:09.5213 0.0232 0.0225 19 22 126.298 Honda A Chip Ganassi Racing
4 3 Scott McLaughlin 1:09.5465 0.0484 0.0252 21 21 126.252 Chevy A Team Penske
5 30 Jack Harvey 1:09.5976 0.0995 0.0511 17 20 126.160 Honda A Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
6 6 Felix Rosenqvist 1:09.7152 0.2171 0.1176 15 19 125.947 Chevy A Arrow McLaren
7 8 Marcus Ericsson 1:09.7706 0.2725 0.0554 17 18 125.847 Honda A Chip Ganassi Racing
8 9 Scott Dixon 1:09.7811 0.2830 0.0105 20 21 125.828 Honda A Chip Ganassi Racing
9 12 Will Power 1:09.9494 0.4513 0.1683 19 23 125.525 Chevy A Team Penske
10 21 Rinus VeeKay 1:09.9595 0.4614 0.0101 17 21 125.507 Chevy A Ed Carpenter Racing
11 11 Marcus Armstrong 1:09.9771 0.4790 0.0176 27 30 125.475 Honda A Chip Ganassi Racing
12 27 Kyle Kirkwood 1:09.9802 0.4821 0.0031 19 21 125.470 Honda A Andretti Autosport
13 15 Graham Rahal 1:10.0010 0.5029 0.0208 21 22 125.432 Honda A Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
14 20 Conor Daly 1:10.0138 0.5157 0.0128 21 23 125.410 Chevy A Ed Carpenter Racing
15 2 Josef Newgarden 1:10.0681 0.5700 0.0543 21 22 125.312 Chevy A Team Penske
16 28 Romain Grosjean 1:10.0800 0.5819 0.0119 20 24 125.291 Honda A Andretti Autosport
17 7 Alexander Rossi 1:10.1417 0.6436 0.0617 19 21 125.181 Chevy A Arrow McLaren
18 60 Simon Pagenaud 1:10.1975 0.6994 0.0558 21 24 125.081 Honda A Meyer Shank Racing
19 18 David Malukas 1:10.2324 0.7343 0.0349 18 19 125.019 Honda A Dale Coyne Racing with HMD
20 51 Sting Ray Robb 1:10.3928 0.8947 0.1604 24 26 124.734 Honda A Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
21 77 Callum Ilott 1:10.4085 0.9104 0.0157 16 21 124.707 Chevy A Juncos Hollinger Racing
22 29 Devlin DeFrancesco 1:10.4150 0.9169 0.0065 21 25 124.695 Honda A Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
23 06 Helio Castroneves 1:10.5015 1.0034 0.0865 14 16 124.542 Honda A Meyer Shank Racing
24 14 Santino Ferrucci 1:10.6467 1.1486 0.1452 19 19 124.286 Chevy A AJ Foyt Enterprises
25 55 Benjamin Pedersen 1:10.7691 1.2710 0.1224 28 31 124.071 Chevy A AJ Foyt Enterprises
26 78 Agustin Canapino 1:10.9736 1.4755 0.2045 26 27 123.714 Chevy A Juncos Holling Racing
27 26 Colton Herta No Time — — 1 1 — Honda P Andretti Autosport w/Curb-Agajanian