Indy 500 testing: Ericsson leads Castroneves in first session

After half an hour of the primary two-hour session for the Indy 500 veterans, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ericsson sat on the prime of the velocity charts.

Having lapped the two.5-mile course in 40.1194s, 224.330mph, final yr’s Indy 500 winner was over one mile per hour away from Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport and Dale Coyne Racing’s David Malukas. 

One other former winner, Pagenaud was fourth for Meyer Shank Racing and was adopted by the quickest of the Penske drivers, Josef Newgarden, with 2008 winner Scott Dixon and 2018 winner Will Power. 

The primary warning of the session flew 45 minutes in for a observe inspection.

When motion resumed, two of the Ed Carpenter Racing vehicles – that of staff proprietor Carpenter and Conor Daly received good tows from Takuma Sato to leap into second and fourth respectively, with Pagenaud slotting between the 2. 

A second yellow flew with 45 minutes to go, once more for a observe inspection, and motion resumed 15 minutes later. 

Indy 500 winners, Marcus Ericsson, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Energy, Simon Pagenaud, Alexander Rossi, Scott Dixon, Takuma Sato, Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan

Picture by: Michael L. Levitt

With lower than 10 minutes left on the clock, Palou was capable of leap to second behind team-mate Ericsson, however Helio Castroneves denied Chip Ganassi a 1-2 end by setting a late 224.280mph lap in his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda.

One of the best Chevrolet-powered automotive was of Pesnke’s Scott McLaughlin, who was one other late improver as he jumped to fourth forward of Carpenter.

Final-minute laps from the likes of Palou, Castroneves and McLaughlin demoted Pagenaud to sixth forward of Dixon, who set his quickest time simply after the final yellow flag interval.

Herta dropped to ninth on the end, whereas the highest 10 was rounded off by Daly.

Penske pair Josef Newgarden and Will Energy completed almost two miles off Ericsson’s greatest effort in 11th and 12th respectively, simply forward of two of the three full-season Arrow McLaren entries pushed by Felix Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward.