Ericsson leads Castroneves in first session

After half an hour of the first two-hour session for the Indy 500 veterans, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ericsson sat at the top of the speed charts.

Having lapped the 2.5-mile course in 40.1194s, 224.330mph, last year’s Indy 500 winner was over one mile per hour clear of Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport and Dale Coyne Racing’s David Malukas. 

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

The first caution of the session flew 45 minutes in for a track inspection.

When action resumed, two of the Ed Carpenter Racing cars – that of team owner Carpenter and Conor Daly got nice tows from Takuma Sato to jump into second and fourth respectively, with Pagenaud slotting between the two. 

A second yellow flew with 45 minutes to go, again for a track inspection, and action resumed 15 minutes later. 

With less than 10 minutes left on the clock, Palou was able to jump to second behind team-mate Ericsson, but Helio Castroneves denied Chip Ganassi a 1-2 finish by setting a late 224.280mph lap in his Meyer Shank Racing-Honda.

The best Chevrolet-powered car was of Pesnke’s Scott McLaughlin, who was another late improver as he jumped to fourth ahead of Carpenter.

Last-minute laps from the likes of Palou, Castroneves and McLaughlin demoted Pagenaud to sixth ahead of Dixon, who set his quickest time just after the last yellow flag period.

Herta dropped to ninth at the finish, while the top 10 was rounded off by Daly.

Penske pair Josef Newgarden and Will Power finished nearly two miles off Ericsson’s best effort in 11th and 12th respectively, just ahead of two of the three full-season Arrow McLaren entries driven by Felix Rosenqvist and Pato O’Ward.