It’s time to introduce ourselves to the second oval race of the 2025 IndyCar season with Practice 1 in Gateway ! Who will be fastest at the rather different St Louisian track?
A delayed start
The beginning of the session was delayed because of the rain, with cars actually on track at 1pm local time.
All drivers immediately begun lapping around the 1.25 mile oval, as Palou opted for a different rear wing. Josef Newgarden, who had won last time out here in St. Louis, goes for an early layout change as well.
A early yellow flag was issued because of moisture on track, which lasted for a couple of minutes. After the first set of attempts, among the early fast speeds recorded Palou held the best in 171.297mph, followed by Power and Simpson.
After the first 15 minutes of the session, Daly leads with a 173.511mph from Power, Palou, Defrancesco and Rossi, who had a moment on the straight.
Felix Rosenqvist is the first driver to set a lap in the 174mph, quickly followed by his former teammate O’Ward.
Many breaks
Newgarden moves up to P1 just before the second yellow flag of the day was issued in order to perform a track conditions check. The session then resumed with a little under a half hour to go. Newgarden improved his best speed to 178.243 mph speed, ahead of Herta and Rossi.
The Andretti driver is quite a bit behind the Penske talent, with his lap recoding a speed of 176.8mph.
The Penske driver is joined on the provisional podium by McLaughlin, who is also the second driver to record a lap in the 178mphs. AJ Foyt driver and 500 podium finisher Malukas moves up to P3.
It was a chill session for IndyCar for Practice at Getaway after the rain delays and the multiple interruptions. However, the Penske driver managed to record quite impressive performances in the short track time, as well as Malukas.
Tune in in a couple of hours for Qualifying.
Complete IndyCar Practice results at Gateway
