IndyCar | FP1 | Sonsio GP | Palou leads Simpson as CGR take practice spoils

The first IndyCar session of the Sonsio GP weekend is in the books as FP1 took place at IMS, view the full report and results below. A third win from four at Barber Motorsports Park left Alex Palou 60 points clear coming into round 5.

A tweak to the tyre allocation was made ahead of the weekend, leading to changes for teams in practice as they looked to keep all their soft tyre sets for qualifying and the race.

In the early stages, Louis Foster and Marcus Ericsson traded top spot as they started out in the 1:13s before quickly dropping into the 1:11s. Foster pumped in a 1:10.481 to lead by over a second from the Swede after 12 minutes. Ericsson (0.3s), Kirkwood, Simpson, Robb, Abel and Siegel soon moved to within a second of the British rookie.

On the entry to turn 12, Marcus Ericsson went a tad too far left opening up the entry and hit the wall with his left front tyre.

A 1:10.154 from Santino Ferrucci saw the AJ Foyt driver lead the way 15 minutes in, a couple of hundredths ahead of Siegel. Simpson, Kirkwood and Foster completed the top 5.

Kyffin Simpson, who has shown signs of progress this year, clocked a 1:10.067 to go fastest by the halfway point.

Turn 12 catches drivers out

Rahal, O’Ward, McLaughlin and Shwartzman had runs through the grass at the exit of turn 12 as they found the limit.

Down at turn 7 Devlin DeFrancesco had a big lock-up and briefly ended up on the grass.

The top 2 in the championship soon made their mark as Lundgaard (P4) and Palou (P5) slotted in behind Simpson, Ferrucci, and Siegel.

A couple of laps later the Spaniard moved himself into P1 as he did a 1:09.985 to go below the 70s barrier. It would stand as the fastest time of the session.

Jacob Abel recovered from a spin in turn 10 as the rookie looked to have got wide. No replays were available, however.

A red flag flag appeared with just under 10 minutes remaining as Rinus VeeKay came to a stop on track out of turn 6.

Full field running results of IndyCar FP1 at Sonsio GP

1. Palou
2. Simpson
3. Ferrucci
4. Siegel
5. Lundgaard
6. Herta
7. Kirkwood
8. O’Ward
9. Power
10. Rossi
11. Foster
12. Rosenqvist
13. Dixon
14. Malukas
15. Daly
16. Robb
17. Rahal
18. Armstrong
19. McLaughlin
20. Ericsson
21. Newgarden
22. Rasmussen
23. Ilott
24. DeFrancesco
25. Abel
26. Shwartzman
27. VeeKay

Group A

The red flag appeared less than a minute into the split groups as Marcus Armstrong came to a stop on pit entry. It was reported he had a low voltage issue.

In turn 12, Rinus VeeKay was the latest driver to visit the grass but he had a full spin, quickly recovering it.

To the surprise of nobody, Alex Palou was fastest in this group as a 1:09.978 put him over a tenth clear of Louis Foster as the Brit impressed with a 1:10.123. O’Ward, Kirkwood, Siegel, Ericsson, Malukas, McLaughlin, Rasmussen, Robb (all in the 1:10s), VeeKay, Abel and Ilott (all in the 1:11s) completed the order of those who set a time.

Group A results of FP1 at IndyCar Sonsio GP

1. Palou
2. Foster
3. O’Ward
4. Kirkwood
5. Siegel
6. Ericsson
7. Malukas
8. McLaughlin
9. Rasmuseen
10. Robb
11. VeeKay
12. Abel
13. Ilott

Group B

Once again turn 12 claimed a grass victim as Felix Rosenqvist had an oversteer moment and found himself on the grass.

Alex Rossi of ECR topped the times in Group B as a 1:10.322 was the benchmark. Rahal, Herta, Power, Daly, Rosenqvist, Foster, Simpson, Lundgaard, Dixon, Newgarden, DeFrancesco and Abel rounded out the order.

Group B results of FP1 at IndyCar Sonsio GP

1. Rossi
2. Rahal
3. Herta
4. Power
5. Daly
6. Rosenqvist
7. Foster
8. Simpson
9. Lundgaard
10. Dixon
11. Newgarden
12. DeFrancesco
13. Abel

Overall results of FP1 at IndyCar Sonsio GP