In the Friday morning session, Colton Herta emerged as the fastest driver. The weather conditions were pleasant, with clear skies and a cool breeze, as the field of 27 IndyCar drivers took to the IMS road course for their first practice session of the weekend.
Originally scheduled for 75 minutes, only one hour was dedicated to setting lap times due to three separate incidents that caused red flags and interrupted the running. Despite the stoppages, Herta managed to put his Andretti Global Honda at the top of the timesheets with an impressive time of 1:09.2863.
Herta’s time was nearly a whole second quicker than last year’s pole time, thanks to the optimal track conditions. Agustin Canapino also put in a strong performance, setting the second fastest time and impressing his team boss Ricardo Juncos. This could potentially be the best weekend of Canapino’s IndyCar career.
Will Power secured the third fastest time, although he held the top spot for a significant portion of the session. There was a slight incident when Power almost collided with another car while exiting his pit box, but fortunately, no damage was done.
Luca Ghiotto, participating in only his second IndyCar race weekend, completed the most laps during practice. However, his finishing position on the timesheets was 24th.
The first red flag was triggered after just 10 minutes when Josef Newgarden spun out in the penultimate corner. Although he required assistance to get back on track, his car remained undamaged. Newgarden was penalized with a five-minute penalty for causing the stoppage, which affected the rest of the field.
Shortly after the session resumed, two more red flags were shown due to mechanical issues experienced by other drivers. Graham Rahal suffered an engine failure, while Marcus Armstrong also encountered engine trouble. Both drivers utilize Honda engines.
Armstrong’s engine failure was particularly dramatic, with thick smoke billowing from the rear of his car as he pulled into the pit box. The RLL and CGR crews will have a busy time replacing the engines before the second practice session, which is scheduled to take place in just over two hours. Unfortunately, both drivers will have minimal laps under their belts from the morning session.
As the session came to a close, Theo Pourchaire experienced fuel pressure issues and was forced to pull his #6 Arrow McLaren Chevy to the side of the track.
The drivers will have another practice session in the early afternoon, followed by qualifying later in the day at 4:20 PM.