Alex Palou finished the first day of preseason practices of the IndyCar in third position, with an improvement in the second session of the opening day. He started 11th at 0.713 of Hertha (1:39.930) and rose in the final part of the day to third position in the same tenth as the leader, a Herta who dropped to 1:39.372.
With this precedent, the Spaniard left on Friday for the third practice at the The Thermal Club, with references already to the first swords of the American championship. Some references that soon became obsolete, since in the first session on Friday the times were already below 1:39,000. ericsson, lundgaard, kirkwood, rosenqvist, Dixon and McLaughlin They were the first members of that club, with two Ganassi and four Honda engines, except for Rosenqvist’s Chevrolets and McLaughlin, in the top-6. With an hour to go, Palou was already close to them, eighth behind Callum Ilottwith 18 laps completed and a best time of 1:39.0690.647 behind the 500 Mile champion, his teammate Ericsson, and close to rolling in the 38 of the head ones
A barrier that the Spaniard overcame in his last attack to sign a 1:38.987. The improvement did not mean gaining a place in the table, since Willpower, current champion, also rose with his last attempt to fourth place, leaving the Barcelonan eighth, 0.564 behind Ericsson’s best time. The Swede did not lower that record in the fourth and final session, but he still leaves California with the fastest time. If he could lower Palou to 1:38.871 to stay less than half a second and seventh place behind the Swede, Lungaard, Kirkwood, Ilott, Armstrong and Power. A top-7 in which there are five Honda engines, which powers the Barcelonan, and three Ganassi, Palou’s team. “I had a lot of fun here and tried a lot of things for this season. In general I am super happy. I can’t wait for the first race of the season, ”said the 2021 champion on his social media.
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