Practice 1 for round 10 of the 2026 IndyCar season has been completed at Road America, view the full report here.
Josef Newgarden won at Gateway but was a doubt whether he would do the full weekend due to the serious foot injury picked up at the Indy 500; Felipe Nasr is on standby. Marcus Ericsson and Christian Rasmussen completed the podium last time out.
With such a long lap at Road America, it was a full car session of 75 minutes.
After going P2 behind Nolan Siegel, Alex Rossi got wide in turn 14 and found a bit of dirt. McLaughlin and O’Ward did the same later.
As cars came out, a 1:44.951 from Siegel saw him lead VeeKay, Rossi, Rasmussen and Schumacher.
Out of turn 8, Dennis Hauger was annoyed with Felix Rosenqvist as he felt like the Swede blocked him.
O’Ward flies to the top but the IndyCar champ responds
A 1:44.368 from Pato O’Ward put him over half a second clear of the pack at that stage. Felix Rosenqvist, Marcus Ericsson, Alex Palou and Marcus Armstrong then got within that but the gap was still over 0.3s.
Nonetheless, the #10 eventually moved himself to P1 thanks to a 1:44.365. O’Ward, Rosenqvist, Dixon, Ericsson, Armstrong, Simpson, Siegel, Collet and Power completed the top 10 halfway through the session.
Robb brings out the red flag
In turn 14, Sting Ray Robb crashed. He got out on the dirt with his left rear wheel. As he tried to keep the lap going and kept on the throttle, the car rotated and he found the inside wall. While the driver was okay, there was plenty of damage to the car.
Once the session restarted, Will Power had a lock-up and then a snap of oversteer into Canada corner.
The soft tyre appears in Practice 1 at 2026 Road America IndyCar round
With 10 minutes to go, Indy 500 winner Felix Rosenqvist went top, doing a 1:44.350. However, MSR teammate Marcus Armstrong topped that, logging a 1:44.271.
Palou and O’Ward did not improve on the softs, with the Mexican having a big lock-up in turn 12. They finished up P3 and P4 anyway.
Siegel, Collet, Dixon, Schumacher, Ericsson and Ferrucci rounded out the top 10.
