IndyCar: Herta tops opening practice for the Acura GP of Long Beach

Andretti Autosport’s best driver, Colton Herta, coming off a dominant win last weekend at Laguna Seca, turned the fastest lap in opening practice for the Acura GP of Long Beach IndyCar race.

Herta’s fast lap of 1m09.268s was 0.1664s faster than the Penske Chevy of Simon Pagenaud, who is driving for his ride in 2022.

Points leader Alex Palou was 3rd fastest 0.18s behind Herta.

“It was a good session,” Palou said. “I like the track. It was all about getting to know the track and see how that No. 10 NTT DATA car was handling. I’m comfortable and ready to push tomorrow.”

Felix Rosenqvist and Ryan Hunter-Reay, both driving like there’s no tomorrow, to land a ride in 2022, rounded out the top-5.

While Rosenqvist found speed, his championship-contending teammate Pato O’Ward struggled in practice. O’Ward is second in the championship standings, 35 points behind Palou. But he ended up 16th in the 28-car field at 1:10.2451 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.

“We need to work,” an agitated O’Ward said after the session. “We just need to sort something out, find time.”

The third title contender, two-time series champion Josef Newgarden, was 10th at 1:09.8557 in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden spun early in the session after losing traction while running over a bump entering Turn 9, but he continued without damage to his car.

Newgarden is 48 points behind Palou in third and must win the NTT P1 Award, race and lead the most laps while Palou finishes 25th or worse to have a chance to pull off an improbable title charge.

Practice 1 Results

Pos	No	Name	Time	Diff	Gap	Speed	Engine	Team
1	26	Colton Herta	1:09.2680	0.000s	0.000s	102.281	Honda	Andretti Autosport
2	22	Simon Pagenaud	1:09.4334	0.1654	0.1654	102.037	Chevy	Team Penske
3	10	Alex Palou	1:09.4554	0.1874	0.0220	102.005	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
4	7	Felix Rosenqvist	1:09.4870	0.2190	0.0316	101.959	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
5	28	Ryan Hunter-Reay	1:09.5154	0.2474	0.0284	101.917	Honda	Andretti Autosport
6	06	Helio Castroneves	1:09.5703	0.3023	0.0549	101.837	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
7	3	Scott McLaughlin	1:09.6212	0.3532	0.0509	101.762	Chevy	Team Penske
8	29	James Hinchcliffe	1:09.6276	0.3596	0.0064	101.753	Honda	Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport
9	27	Alexander Rossi	1:09.7940	0.5260	0.1664	101.510	Honda	Andretti Autosport
10	2	Josef Newgarden	1:09.8557	0.5877	0.0617	101.420	Chevy	Team Penske
11	51	Romain Grosjean	1:09.8807	0.6127	0.0250	101.384	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing w/RWR
12	12	Will Power	1:09.9916	0.7236	0.1109	101.224	Chevy	Team Penske
13	9	Scott Dixon	1:10.0535	0.7855	0.0619	101.134	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
14	18	Ed Jones	1:10.1145	0.8465	0.0610	101.046	Honda	Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan
15	60	Jack Harvey	1:10.1758	0.9078	0.0613	100.958	Honda	Meyer Shank Racing
16	5	Pato O’Ward	1:10.2451	0.9771	0.0693	100.858	Chevy	Arrow McLaren SP
17	8	Marcus Ericsson	1:10.3153	1.0473	0.0702	100.758	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
18	14	Sebastien Bourdais	1:10.3788	1.1108	0.0635	100.667	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
19	15	Graham Rahal	1:10.5113	1.2433	0.1325	100.478	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
20	21	Rinus VeeKay	1:10.7374	1.4694	0.2261	100.156	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
21	30	Takuma Sato	1:10.7675	1.4995	0.0301	100.114	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
22	59	Max Chilton	1:10.7844	1.5164	0.0169	100.090	Chevy	Carlin
23	20	Conor Daly	1:10.9036	1.6356	0.1192	99.922	Chevy	Ed Carpenter Racing
24	11	Charlie Kimball	1:11.0619	1.7939	0.1583	99.699	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises
25	77	Callum Ilott	1:11.1181	1.8501	0.0562	99.620	Chevy	Juncos Hollinger Racing
26	45	Oliver Askew	1:11.2253	1.9573	0.1072	99.470	Honda	Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing
27	48	Jimmie Johnson	1:11.4371	2.1691	0.2118	99.175	Honda	Chip Ganassi Racing
28	4	Dalton Kellett	1:11.7969	2.5289	0.3598	98.678	Chevy	AJ Foyt Enterprises