Alexander Rossi led the only free practice for the Indianapolis GP 2 before qualifying. With Meyer Shank, Helio Castroneves managed to finish in the top-10
Alexander Rossi started the Indianapolis GP weekend 2 on the front row. The Andretti American set the fastest time in the only free practice this weekend, held on Friday (29). The #29 car's time was 1min10s091.
The time was only 0s020s faster than Penske's Josef Newgarden. The two-time Indy champion improved his time in the final minutes of the session and prevented a 1-2 finish for Andretti, as Colton Herta took third place with the #27 car. The fourth spot was filled by Penske, in the hands of New Zealander Scott McLaughlin.
The top-5 was completed by Ganassi's Álex Palou from Spain. Graham Rahal of RLL was right behind, followed by Sweden's Felix Rosenqvist and Denmark's Christian Lundgaard.
Brazilian Helio Castroneves was ninth. With Meyer Shank, he clocked 1min10s369, ahead of American Conor Daly, who completed the top-10 with Carpenter.
Among other title contenders, championship leader Marcus Ericsson was 11th with Ganassi, Scott Dixon was 15th. Will Power was 18th, while Pato O'Ward was only 20th.
The cars return to the track for the qualifying session, which takes place at 2:00 p.m. (ET).
Learn how the free practice session for the Indianapolis GP 2 went:
The green flag for the 90-minute session was raised at 10:30 a.m. As expected, the opening minutes were little on-track action and more tweaking. The fastest lap was set by Andretti's Alexander Rossi, who clocked a 1min11s395. The man responsible for knocking Rossi out of the lead was defending champion Ganassi's Alex Palou, who set a lap of 1:11:11.211 as practice approached the 25-minute mark.
The first third of the session ended with Palou in the lead, followed by Rossi, Newgarden, Harvey, Malukas, Grosjean, Ericsson, VeeKay, McLaughlin, and Herta.
RLL's Christian Lundgaard had the first scare when he ran off the track and into the grass, but managed to get his car out of the bad spot and avoid a red flag interruption.
Palou's lead fell away as practice passed the 50-minute mark. Now the leader was Englishman Callum Ilott of Juncos, who clocked 1min11s196, becoming the first Chevrolet-engined car to top the session. Ilott's joy didn't last long, as Dutchman Rinus VeeKay of Carpenter took the lead next with 1min11s134, but Josef Newgarden quickly emerged with Penske to take the top spot with 1min11s056.
Palou took the lead again with 1min10s979. Minutes later, it was VeeKay's turn to take the lead for the second time in the morning, with 1min10s898. The Dutchman kept up the good sequence and even reduced his best mark to 1min10s647. First leader of the practice, Alexander Rossi took the first place again with 1min10s091.
Andretti had a momentary 1-2 in the activity with Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco, who with 1min10s604, moved into second place. Devlin's brilliance didn't last long, with Conor Daly, Jack Harvey and Simon Pagenaud all overtaking the driver's time. Colton Herta also came up with a good time, second only to Rossi with 1min10s150.
In the final minutes, there was still time for Josef Newgarden to take second place with 1min10s112.
Indy 2022, Indianapolis GP 2, Free Practice