A condensed weekend at the Sonsio Grand Prix around IMS makes the practice sessions all the more important. It challenges INDYCAR teams and drivers to make changes and find the lap time between the two practice sessions ahead of what looks like is going to be a wet qualifying.
Alex Palou Sets Pace in Full Group
Drivers took the track for the final full group practice session before an interesting qualifying in a few hours. Early on, it was Christian Lundgaard who set the pace and jumped to the top with a time of 1:11.540. He would hold until Álex Palou beat his best time with a 1:11.185 with 30 minutes to go.
Drivers continued to bring down the times, and it was Louis Foster who found the top for a good chunk of the session. That would be the case before Kyle Kirkwood found a time of 1:10.557. The top two would stay the same until Palou found a lap of 1:10.450. That time would hold up to be the fastest of practice 2 at the Sonsio Grand Prix.
Group Sessions
Pato O’Ward struggled to find pace in the full-field session, finishing 16th. He took the track again for the group 1 session, where he managed to set the pace early on with a time of 1:11.095, and held on for the majority of the session. That time didn’t help him much, finishing 19th overall.
That was until Felix Rosenqvist put a time down of 1:11.019. And in the dying seconds, rookie Mick Schumacher found his pace with a set time of 1:10.790.
In Group 2, Alexander Rossi and Lundgaard traded places at the top of the session. The Dane set a time of 1:11.039, followed by 1:10.852 from Rossi. Lungaard would find a few more tenths to end with the fastest time of the session with a 1:10.736.