IndyCar News: Palou tops opening Mid-Ohio practice

Alex Palou turned a lap of 1m07.0650s to top opening practice for the Honda Indy 200 NTT Data IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio.

Out of a ride for next year Alexander Rossi, driving for a ride with someone, was second 0.443s behind in his McLaren Chevy.

“We only got one run in because of the rain, but the car seems to be in a good window,” said Rossi.  “The hybrid works as we expected, which is good. We even got a couple laps in the rainy conditions. It’s hard to really know where we’re at, but certainly the No. 7 VELO Arrow McLaren Chevrolet is in a good place to start the weekend.”

Palou’s Ganassi teammate Marcus Armstrong was third, 0.48s back.

Colton Herta and Scott McLaughlin rounded out the top-5 as the new Hybrid era begins.

“Not much running,” Palou said. “Only got I think nine laps. I think everybody wanted to get more. We didn’t really get all the learnings we wanted. Happy with the first run we got, but we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”

Two red flags in the first 50 minutes of the 90-minute session reduced early track time. Then the arrival of intensifying rain with about 26 minutes left divided the session into two distinct parts.

Boasting five Mid-Ohio Sports Car wins in the last six tries, Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing drivers are the ones to beat for Sunday’s The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Presented by the 2025 Civic Hybrid. Each has won the annual NTT INDYCAR SERIES pilgrimage to the rural Ohio road course a track-best 12 times.

The main questions are can anyone halt this dominant patch and does the repave of the 2.258-mile racing surface, in addition to the debut of the hybrid power unit this weekend, close the gap to the competition?

Practice 1 Results