IndyCar News: Palou not Herta tops opening practice for Detroit GP (Update)

Correction – there was an extra session  as part of Practice 1 and both Alex Palou and Pato O’Ward pipped Colton Herta for fast time overall.

The Detroit GP Practice 1 Results Table below has been updated.

Good feeling car = fastest in Practice 1 😎
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— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 31, 2024

Palou opened his defense of his Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear victory last year by leading the first practice for this year’s event Friday with a top lap of 1 minute, 1.7210 seconds in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Two-time and reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Palou will aim for his second consecutive pole on the nine-turn, 1.645-mile circuit on washboard city streets.

“It was busy,” Palou said. “I visited the run-off areas a couple of times here and there, just trying to find the limit and the grip of the track. The track is grippier, a lot grippier, than last year. Pretty happy. The car feels good so far.”

Wall contact by Jack Harvey forced a red flag with less than 15 minutes left in the session. Harvey clipped the left-side barrier in Turn 7, careening across the track and hitting the right-side barrier before his No. 18 Dale Coyne Racing Honda stopped between Turns 7 and 8. Harvey was unhurt

Andretti Honda IndyCar driver Colton Herta turned a lap of 1m02.0219s to top opening practice for the 2024 Detroit GP on the downtown streets.

Herta’s fastest lap was a blazing 95.482 mph as the heavy IndyCars lumber around the city streets

Team Penske Chevy veteran Will Power was 2nd, 0.4255s behind Herta.

Another Team Penske driver, Scott McLaughlin, who sat on the pole for the Indy 500 was third, 0.4626s back.

Christian Lundgaard was 4th for the Rahal team and Ganassi ace Alex Palou rounded out the top-5

Scott McLaughlin

The Indy 500 Pole sitter was asked what he thought about the Detroit circuit after some repaving was made right before turn 3 to allow for a better passing opportunity and some guardrails were added in some corners to protect the cars better.

“It is very bumpy track but I think it has character. You can do a couple little things, softening or what not. Ultimately there’s a point where it hurts the balance trying to set up for the bumps. You just got to deal with them. It’s not a billiard table, absolutely not. It’s Detroit streets. We just enjoy it.”

“The last corner coming out of the pit straight. Really, really good. I think there’s a lot of great improvements. Off the long back straight, it’s a lot smoother there. Bumpy down Jefferson Ave. Once it gets to the point they resurface, they resurface a thousand feet or something like that, which is amazing.”

“Yeah, I think there’s been a lot of really good improvements from this time last year to now. So yeah, I think they’ve done a really good job.”

Colton Herta

Autoracing1 spoke with Colton Herta to see what he felt about the track changes.  The American also thought the bumps gave the track character.

“Last year, the bumps hurt the racing so we only used one line so you would avoid the bumps.  That was so bad.  Hopefully this has been changed to make racing better.”

“I have never seen so many manhole covers in a row.  They are everywhere. It is mostly only on the backstretch.”

“Putting some more of the guard rails on the inside of the corners help, because we slap the walls a lot, more than people realize.  You are kinda chipping away at the wall and eventually it will get to a point where is grabs the rim out of the tire.”

Detroit GP Practice 1 Results