Photo by Kyle McInnes

Pato O’Ward ended up with the fastest lap in a tightly bunched practice session to kick off the Grand prix of Long Beach weekend. O’Ward’s lap of 1:06.6874 in his 10 minute segment nipped Will Power by nine hundredths of a second. The top fifteen cars were separated by less than one second.

The three Team Penske teammates finished second (Power), third (Scott McLaughlin), and fifth (Josef Newgarden).

Felix Rosenqvist continued his early season strength with a fourth place result.

2023 race winner Kyle Kirkwood came back from gearbox issues early in the session to finish the day eighth quickest.

Notes

The split segment format- 45 minutes all cars followed by two 10 minute segments for half the field-seemed to be much smoother and less confusing than the schedule Indycar used at St. Pete. I’m interested to hear what the drivers thought of it. It definitely looked better on television.

From what I could tell, the new aeroscreen appears to be sleeker than the original screen. It did not look as large from the head on shots.

Chevrolet had seven of the top 10 speeds. Christian Lundgaard and Kirkwood were the other Hondas after Rosenqvist in the top 10.

Theo Pourchaire had an impressive Indycar debut, finishing his first ever session in 21st.

Colton Herta was near the top most of the afternoon, but a vibration in the second part of practice prevented his getting a clean lap on the alternate tires.

Results