IndyCar | FP1 | Road America | Kyle Kirkwood hits the ground running ahead of Devlin DeFrancesco - Motorsport

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First practice for the 2025 IndyCar Grand Prix of Road America is in the books as FP1 took place in Wisconsin. View the full report and results of the session here.

At the green light, the majority of the field joined the track to begin gathering data at the start of a critical weekend in IndyCar.

Kyffin Simpson set the pace early on as the track was relatively quiet in the opening stages. He was usurped by Marcus Ericsson as the track rubbered in.

Devlin DeFrancesco pushed beyond the limits down at Turn 5, locking up his front tyre and running into the gravel. No damage was done to his RLL car and the Canadian continued.

As the session progressed, Santino Ferrucci led the way at the top of the standings with a 1:45.742. The American was narrowly ahead of Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard.

After a quiet start to the first practice, reigning champion Alex Palou went to the top, just two tenths quicker than Ferrucci.

It is a vital weekend for the Spaniard after failing to finish in Detroit and ending up in eighth place at Gateway, which significantly reduced his points lead.

Turns 9 and 10 continued to be a challenge as Colton Herta balanced his Andretti Global car on the limit. With just over 20 minutes to go, Palou held the quickest time ahead of Josef Newgarden and Ferrucci.

Braking caused significant issues in FP1

The difficult circuit continued to cause problems for multiple drivers. Felix Rosenqvist locked up at Turn 5 but continued.

Ferrucci had more significant problems as he lost the rear of his car and spun. He avoided the wall and his No. 14 car was not damaged.

Despite the car not hitting a barrier, he couldn’t restart with the hybrid system. Braking was very tricky as Graham Rahal locked up and spun, causing a red flag.

The session was very competitive; the entire 27-car field was separated by just 1.8 seconds in the opening outing of the weekend.

After a brief stoppage, the session resumed with 12 minutes to go after a chaotic session in Wisconsin. Ferrucci eventually recovered to the pit lane and bolted on the softer tyre.

Palou began a run on the softer tyre and was pushing limits, running wide at Turn 5. He only improved by a tenth to set a 1:45.462.

A flurry of times came in as title contender Kyle Kirkwood went quickest ahead of DeFrancesco and Lundgaard with five minutes to go.

Another red flag was called as Alexander Rossi got beached in the gravel. The ECR driver ran wide at Turn 1, ending his session. FP1 briefly resumed with a minute left before the chequered flag flew.