Newgarden, this yr’s Indianapolis 500 winner, topped the 90-minute session across the 0.875-mile oval with a greatest lap of 18.242s, a pace of 176.428mph. He has led 1,056 laps and has 4 wins to his title in 12 begins right here.
Ed Carpenter set the early tempo at 172.678mph for his personal group, 0.3mph forward of sequence dominator Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing). The latter’s team-mate Marcus Ericsson then took over P1 on the 10-minute mark with 173.811mph.
A flurry of quickest laps then unfolded from Ryan Hunter-Reay (ECR), Colton Herta (Andretti Autosport) and Newgarden, with the latter the primary into the 176mph bracket with 176.428mph, which might stay because the quickest time of observe.
Groups spent a lot of the session evaluating tyre degradation, with vehicles on used tyres dropping large pace on Iowa’s well-worn asphalt. Even Newgarden was lapping over 25mph off his quickest time.
Agustin Canapino introduced out the primary yellow simply after the midway level when he spun his Juncos Hollinger Racing entry at Flip 1 after lighting up the tyres exiting the pits, however thankfully avoiding going into the trail of Alexander Rossi’s Arrow McLaren.
Conor Daly, who was once more subbing for the sidelined Simon Pagenaud at Meyer Shank Racing, was one of many few to take new rubber in the midst of the session, leaping to fourth with a lap of 174.003mph.
With one-third of the session to go, extra new tyres appeared: Ericsson took second at 175.887mph and Pato O’Ward – whose Arrow McLaren group was one of many few to not take a look at right here – went fourth with 175.470mph. He then displayed sturdy five-lap and 10-lap tempo on his run.
Patricio O’Ward, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet
Picture by: Michael L. Levitt / Motorsport Images
Herta got here near grazing the wall at Flip 4 with 20 minutes remaining however acquired away with it. His team-mate Romain Grosjean then had a close to miss with Palou at Flip 3.
Inside the ultimate 10 minutes, a fast second yellow was thrown as Santino Ferrucci ran excessive by way of Flip 2 in his AJ Foyt Racing entry.
Penske’s Scott McLaughlin took new tyres on the resumption and leapt to second with 175.968mph, 0.0477s off team-mate Newgarden, which works out at 0.5mph. Takuma Sato did likewise, taking sixth with 175.288mph, and Toronto winner Christian Lundgaard (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) took seventh within the ultimate two minutes.
Ericsson, who was third quickest, accomplished essentially the most laps at 126.
Qualifying begins at 8:30am native time (9:30am ET) on Saturday, the place the grids for the races can be set by every driver’s first and second excursions of a two-lap run.
IndyCar Iowa – FP1 outcomes