P1racenews AI automatic summary:
Saturday morning’s dry and warm 45-minute practice session for the NTT IndyCar Series featured more off-track adventures than any in recent memory as the 27 drivers tried to get a handle on their h…
During Saturday morning’s 45-minute practice session for the NTT IndyCar Series, drivers faced challenges with their heavier hybrid cars, resulting in more off-track excursions than usual. Despite this, only one incident led to contact. The session saw Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward setting the pace with a 1m05.9862s lap time on the faster Firestone alternate tires.
Local favorite Graham Rahal closely followed O’Ward with a time of 1m06.0439s in his Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda. The top six was completed by Colton Herta, David Malukas, Scott Dixon, and Alexander Rossi. Linus Lundqvist broke the 1m06s barrier early on, followed by Marcus Armstrong briefly taking the lead.
Mid-session, O’Ward regained the top spot, but it was Marcus Ericsson who ultimately set the fastest time of 1m06.5774s. Colton Herta’s off-track incident brought out a red flag, impacting the session. The practice session ended with O’Ward setting the quickest lap time ahead of qualifying later in the day.
