The wheels ar already turning:
Starting Tire Choices
Tag: NTT Indycar Series
Pagenaud Leads Warmup
Photo: Simon Pagenaud leads Benjamin pedersen and Helio Castroneves through turn 3
Simon Pagenaud Had the fastest lap in the just concluded warmup session for the Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit. It was the cleanest full car practice of the weekend. the only red lfag came with less than a minute to go for debris.
Pagenaud’s time of 1:02.3615 beat Callum Ilott by 12 hundredths of a second. Marcus Armstrong, Scott Dixon, and Josef Newgarden complete the top five.
Pole sitter Alex Palou was seventh and Scott McLaughlin, who starts second, was 16th.
I ventured to turn three for the warmup. It is a great spot for viewing. Fans are very colse to the action. The area provides one of the best views of the track. The merchnadise are is located at Hart Plaza. It was the first time this weekend that I actually felt immersed in the race event.
Turn three is also the bs=est photo spot I have found.
Racee Day at Detroit
Today’s schedule:
8 am: Gates Open
10 am: IndyCar Warmup
11 am: TransAM Race
12:45 pm: Command For Indy NXT
12:50 pm: Green flag for IndyNXT Peacock
2:31 pm: Cars to grid
3:09 pm: Invocation
3:10 pm: Canada then USA Anthems
3:14 pm: Drivers to cars 3:23 pm: Command
3:30 pm: Green Flag NBC, Peacock
Good morning from a mnuch cooler Detroit. High today for the race should be around 78 degrees, a nice break from the high 80s and 90 degrees of the past two days..
The warmup should be interesting. No one wants to have a car damaged before the race. Indy NXT showed tha this track can produce a mostly clean, entertaining race. Will Indycar be able to have a race like Indy Nxt had?
The starting lineup:
I haven’t been able to get around the track as much as I had hoped yet, . I have no feel for the attendance. This track layout is very segmented and difficult to get from end to the other.
I will be back after the warmup. Here are some photos from yesterday. The first was taken by Kyle McInnes, qwho has produced outstanding work this weekend. The rest, which pale in comparison, are from the roof of a parking garage.
Palou Takes Second Straight Pole
Photo by Kyle McInnes
What an incredible four weeks Alex Palou has had. He won the GMR Grand Prix, followed that the next weekend with the pole for the Indianapolis 500, came back after a pit incident to finish fourth, and today he wins the pole for tomorrow’s Detroit Grand Prix. Palou’s lap of 1:01.8592 beat Scott McLaughlin by three tenths of a second.Palou has now won a polreon each of the types of tracks Indycar runs on- an oval, a road course, and a street course.
Despite he carnage in the two practice sessions, qualifying was relatively clean with just a few light wall types. The only major issues came in the second round when Kyle kirkwood tore left front wheel off his car after hitting the wall. kirkwood will start 121th.
Andretti Autosport, which had won poles in theother two street course to date, only had one Fast Six representative. Romain Grosjean will start third. Colton Herta has struggled so far this weekend and will start 24th.
The Rahal team continues to lag. Graham Rahal will start 27th. Christian Lundgaard admitted the team is just not fast.
Someone to watch tomorrow is Simon Pagenaud. He starts eighth and has looked good every time out the last two days.
Notes
We are nearly halfway thriough the season and Will Power has yet to win a pole.
Chip Ganassi Racing has qualifying figured out. Team Penske is starting to catch up to them.
I never thought I’d miss Belle Isle. The past few years it had turned into a racy track. Will this course take 10 years to create a decent show?
Results
| 1. (10) Alex Palou, Honda, 01:01.8592 (95.734) 2. (3) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 01:02.1592 (95.271) 3. (28) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 01:02.2896 (95.072) 4. (9) Scott Dixon, Honda, 01:02.4272 (94.862) 5. (2) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 01:02.5223 (94.718) 6. (8) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 01:02.6184 (94.573) 7. (12) Will Power, Chevrolet, 01:02.1817 (95.237) 8. (60) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 01:02.1860 (95.230) 9. (6) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 01:02.1937 (95.219) 10. (5) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 01:02.2564 (95.123) 11. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 01:02.2958 (95.063) 12. (27) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 01:04.6075 (91.661) 13. (7) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 01:02.5714 (94.644) 14. (21) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 01:02.1911 (95.223) 15. (20) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 01:02.9522 (94.071) 16. (77) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 01:02.2644 (95.111) 17. (29) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 01:03.0017 (93.997) 18. (45) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 01:02.6495 (94.526) 19. (55) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 01:03.1599 (93.762) 20. (78) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 01:02.9071 (94.139) 21. (18) David Malukas, Honda, 01:03.2126 (93.684) 22. (14) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 01:02.9589 (94.061) 23. (06) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 01:03.3879 (93.425) 24. (26) Colton Herta, Honda, 01:03.4165 (93.383) 25. (30) Jack Harvey, Honda, 01:03.7728 (92.861) 26. (51) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 01:03.7496 (92.895) 27. (15) Graham Rahal, Honda, 01:03.8663 (92.725) |
Qualifying Groups; Track Changes
Photo by Kyle McInnes
Detroit GP and Indycar made some noidificatiuons to the track overnight:
These changes make sense. i hope they reduce issues on track.
Qualifying groups:
Dixon Paces Another Disjointed Session
Scott Dixon led another practice broken up by red flags. Five red flags fractured the practice into bursts of action.The most serious accident came with 10 minutes to go when Devlin deFrancesco hit the outside wall in turn 6. DeFrancesco was unhurt, but the car had severe damage.
Dixon’s time of1:03.2317 was slower than the fast time set by Pato O’Ward yesterday. O’Ward was seventh this morning.
Will Power was second quick today, and kyle kirkwood ended the hour third. The top 12 were within a second of Dixon’s time.
Callum Ilott finished ninth, his second top 10 of the weekend.
Results
Qualifying Day at Detroit-What Did Drivers Learn Yesterday?
Today’s schedule: Sessioins in Bold on Peacoick
8 am: Gates Open
8:15 am: Trans AM Quals
9:05 am: IndyCar Practice
10:35 am: Trans AM Race
11:55 am: Indy NXT Command
12 pm: Green flag Indy NXT
1:15 pm: INDYCAR Qualsifying
4:10 pm: Pilot Challenge Race
Yesterday was alearning day. Today we see how much the Indycar drivers learned. Will today be smoother?
Qualifying should be key here as passing opportunities will be scarce. With the amount of yellows expected during the race, someone may come through from mid pack.
Some teams were speculating about a one stop race if there are enough caution laps. That might be tough to calculate and hit just right.
Here are a few photos I took yesterday as I fumbled my way through this maze of a setup.
O’Ward Sees Elements of Other Tracks in Detroit
Photo by Kyle McInnes
Pato O’Ward lwed tody’s opening practice for the Detroit Grand Prix this afternoon. The track proved a challenge for the entire grid as they learned the circuit.
“It’s definitely a unique track, I think it has a lot of characteristics from all the other street courses that we go to in terms of pavements, certain type of corners. Yeah, we rolled off strong,” O’Ward said.
Red flags stopped gthe session six times, including the final one for O’Ward. Many drivers found the runoff areas but were able to keep going.
Arrow McLaren placde all three cars in the top 10 with Felix Rosenqvisy fifth and Alexander Rossi sixth.
Callum Ilott rebounded from a difficult May to finish today ninth.
Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden was 15th today, trailing eammates Will Power, who was seventh, and Scott McLaughlin in 10th.
Results
Detroit First Practice- Seeing Red
The opening practice for the Detroit Grand Prix saw several stoppages for cars stalled in runoff areas. Drivers are learning the byumpy narrow track with tight turns.
Pato O’Ward led the session with a lap of 1:03.0773. Scott Dixon was second and Alexander Rossi third. The top 10 cars are within a second of the leader. I will have a report later tonight with full results.
I arrived later than I anticipated, and I had trouble finding my designated parking garage. I ended upparking in another garage farther away. As a result, i have not had time to explore the track.
The media center, however, is one of the nicest I have seen. Maybe this track doesn’t need to be explored.
The split pit lane is wider than I thought and should not cause manyn issues within the pits itself. Blending back onto the track could be tricky. it is a blind exit. If a driver crosses the three foot wide strip separating the righ and left pits, they must drive through and reenter afetr another lap.
Pit assignments
Assignments based on qualifying for the GMR Grand Prix.
