Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi in the No.27 NAPA Auto Parts AutoNation Honda backed up his second-place finish in Detroit last weekend at Road America on Friday as he topped the time-sheets in the opening practice ahead of Sunday’s Sonsio Grand Prix of Road America presented by AMR. Despite the fact that Road America and Detroit have different track characteristics with Detroit being a street course while Road America is a permanent road course.
Rossi, who will move to Arrow McLaren SP next season set a fastest time on Friday of 1:45.6027s and speaking following the action, the Californian commented saying:
“Today was good. It was a bit weird to have the Firestone Alternate tires on Day One, so it will be interesting to see how that translates tomorrow. Obviously, the track evolution will continue to get better every session of the weekend, so we will have to see how that will translate from practice to qualifying. The No. 27 rolled off really strong, which is positive on these weekends when it’s so close and you’ve got to start from a good point. Hats off to the team and their effort.”
Colton Herta in the No.26 Gainbridge Honda was second fastest with a time of 1:45.7361s and speaking following the action he said:
“Overall, I’m happy with today. It was a long day of downtime before the practice, so it was good to finally get into the car this afternoon. It was nice to get in for a long session. The car felt good right from the beginning. We made some good changes; we made some bad changes and kind of found out what we liked and what we didn’t on both tire compounds. The Gainbridge Honda is fast going into tomorrow.”
Romain Grosjean in the No.28 UniFirst DHL Honda was P14 with a time of 01:46.6454s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“Absolutely awesome to be back in Road America. I love the track. We had a really productive session. We didn’t get a lot done on the (Firestone) Reds; we got a red flag. But I think the UniFirst / DHL car is a pretty good car. The teammates seem to be fast as well, so we have a lot of data to look at. Definitely happy with how things went.”
Delvin DeFrancesco in the No.29 PowerTap Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport Honda was P11 with a time of 01:46.3834s and speaking following the action he commented saying:
“FP1 is in the books here at the Grand Prix of Road America. P11 for our No. 29 PowerTap Andretti Steinbrenner Honda. We seemed pretty strong today and still have some fine-tuning to do, but overall happy with our starting point.”