Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou in the No.10 DHL Honda was fastest in the opening practice session of the Thermal Club INDYCAR race on Friday.
Speaking about his day after setting a 01:40.5486s the Spaniard said:
“A really good start to the weekend for the No. 10 DHL Honda team. “We didn’t get many laps because of some red flags, but the car rolled off really well considering it was very different to last year with different tires and the hybrid unit, and we didn’t test here this year.
“I’m really happy. There are some things to work on before we head to practice two tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to a nice weekend.
Kyle Kirkwood was second leading a Andretti Global 2,3,4 with Marcus Ericsson third and Colton Herta fourth.
Christian Rasmussen had a great day for Ed Carpenter Racing ending the day in fifth place just ahead of Pato O’Ward. Speaking following the action, O’Ward said:
First session of 2025, and I would say that we’ve got some work to do. But I’m confident in the men and women that we can make those changes and see how we stack up in Practice 2, and then get ready for Qualifying.”
Scott McLaughlin in the No.3 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet was seventh just ahead of rookie Louis Foster of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing who commented saying:
It’s good to be back at Thermal. I think we rolled off the truck pretty well; I’m pretty happy with the car. I made some mistakes on my lap in that (last) session, but I think overall in lap time we are P8 on the combined sheet so I’m happy with that. The track is very dusty, which is going to play a big factor into this weekend I think but we’ll see how it goes. Overall, so far, I’m pretty happy. We’ve just got to make some improvements overnight and try and retain where we are, if not get better.”
Felix Rosenqvist was ninth for Meyer Shank just ahead of Will Power who rounded out the top ten for Team Penske.
AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci in the No.14 Sexton Properties Chevrolet was 11th just ahead of six-time series champion Scott Dixon in the No.9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Callum Ilott was 13th for PREMA Racing while his teammate Robert Shwartzman suffered a fuel pump fire which has resulted in the rookie needing a new car for Saturday’s action.
Kyffin Simpson was 14th just ahead of Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Sting Ray Robb.
Marcus Armstrong was 16th for Meyer Shank Racing just ahead of Alexander Rossi and Josef Newgarden.
David Malukas was 19th for AJ Foyt Racing just ahead of Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Conor Daly whorounded out the top twenty.
Nolan Siegel was 21st just ahead of Graham Rahal and Devlin DeFrancesco. Speaking following the action, Rahal said:
On the primary Firestone tire, the lap time came pretty quick. It wasn’t super-fast at the time, but I was surprised at what the time was, because we were in traffic. But then, when I went back to it, I think there was a bit of degradation, and it was going to be hard to get a better lap time on them. And it was the same with the alternates; I locked the left front on the good lap, and that was that. We did our best lap on Lap 5 of the tire, and at that point the tires are gone but there are some positives to take from the session. We have to stop the fronts (tires) from locking and see if we can ride the curbs better. Overall, we have something to work with and we’re going to continue to work at it and get the Mobil 1 Honda in a good position.”
Devlin DeFrancesco said:
It’s a fun track. The high-speed stuff at the back is quite fun. Our car is really, really solid through all the high speed stuff, but it’s been tricky in the low-speed parts. We’ve got to get some push out of the car because its understeer-y so we’ll throw some things at it and be better tomorrow. But then I had an all-red hybrid alarm on my dash go off that said ‘hybrid MGU failure’ and to stop on track so we ended the session early.”
Christian Lundgaard was 24th just ahead of Rinus VeeKay and Jacob Abel while Robert Shwartzman suffered his mechanical issue.