IndyCar News: Rosenqvist quickest at Homestead Day 1

Meyer Shank Honda driver Felix Rosenqvist was fastest on the first of three days of IndyCar testing at the Homestead-Miami roval in Florida Monday.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The Swede turned the best unofficial lap of 1m11.244s in the No. 66 Honda, 0.2s faster than Marcus Ericsson of Andretti Global in the No. 98 Honda.

Homestead Florida - Felix Rosenqvist checks out his Meyer Shank Racing livery — Homestead Florida – Felix Rosenqvist checks out his Meyer Shank Racing IndyCar livery

It was a Honda 1-2-3 with Alex Palou 3rd for Chip Ganassi Racing. The fastest Chevy-powered car was David Malukas in the #5 Arrow McLaren entry.

Due to money being tight in IndyCar, teams were limited to just 3 sets of Firestone tires and degradation was high, limiting the ability of teams to focus on qualifying hot laps.

Some teams brought IndyCar’s new lightweight chassis components to the test. They are currently in limited supply and save about 30 pounds to offset the heavy Hybrid system components coming later this year. In other words, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Between paying for the hybrid system and the lightweight Magnesium components to offset its weight, it is costing the teams a lot of money they don’t have.

Homestead Day 1 Test Times

Pos	No	Name	Time	Behind	Gap	FL	Laps	Speed (mph)	Engine	Team
1	66	Felix Rosenqvist	1m11.2443s	0.000s	0.000s	25	39	111.672	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
2	98	Marcus Ericsson	1m11.4459s	0.2016	0.2016	27	49	111.357	Honda	Andretti Autosport w/ Curb-Agajanian
3	10	Alex Palou	1m11.5286s	0.2843	0.0827	45	63	111.228	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
4	5	David Malukas	1m11.7574s	0.5131	0.2288	40	59	110.874	Chevy	Arrow McLaren
5	78	Agustin Canapino	1m12.2490s	1.0047	0.4916	44	49	110.119	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
6	21	Rinus VeeKay	1m12.3422s	1.0979	0.0932	19	41	109.977	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
7	15	Graham Rahal	1m12.4857s	1.2414	0.1435	30	40	109.760	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
8	12	Josef Newgarden	1m12.5870s	1.3427	0.1013	43	53	109.606	Chevy	Team Penske
9	18	Jack Harvey	1m13.8947s	2.6504	1.3077	9	22	107.667	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with RWR
10	41	Sting Ray Robb	1m14.6318s	3.3875	0.7371	18	26	106.603	Chevy	A.J. Foyt Enterprises