Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward has topped the first IndyCar practice session at the 2023 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach ahead of Scott Dixon and Colton Herta.
The top seven was especially close across the 75-minute session, with only 0.4573s between O’Ward and seventh-place team-mate Alexander Rossi, and less than a second spreading the Top 20.
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“It’s a tight field,” O’Ward said. “Long Beach is always such an intense qualifying. We just kept chipping at it today.
“We rolled off strong, but we’ve been definitely making adjustments to get it a little more in the window, a bit more to this track’s characteristics and to what I like. So far, it’s good.”
“We’re going to look into it and see where we can make improvements, but I think we’re in good shape for tomorrow,” O’Ward added. “It’s all about executing, man. It’s going to be really, really tough.”
Scott Dixon was 0.2650 behind O’Ward in second, the six-time champion posting a 1:06.9649 in the #9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda around the 11-turn, 3.167km street circuit.
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Third-fastest was Colton Herta with a at 1:06.9808 in the #26 Gainbridge Honda, with St Petersburg winner Marcus Ericisson next to make it two Ganassi cars on the top four with a 1:06.9859 in the No. 8 Huski Chocolate Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.
Romain Grosjean was fifth after posting a 1:07:1049 in the #28 DHL Honda to round out the top five.
Scott McLaughlin posted a 1:07.3973 to be the fastest of the Penske Chevrolet trio in 13th, with Texas winner Josef Newgarden and 2022 Series Champion Will Power filling the next two positions.
Newgarden won this event in 2022 but contact with the wall 35 minutes into today’s first session damaged the floor of the #2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet and also wasted his first set of Firestone tyres.
The Penske driver sat out the last 10 minutes as he looked to save rubber for later in the weekend.
“This place is like a gnarly afternoon on the 405 [freeway] with hella traffic,” Newgarden said. “It’s Long Beach. I about did that [hit the wall] four or five times. Some of the settings we started with were probably aggressive, and I was trying to make the most of it.
“But it’s good vibes here. I love this place, and the Hitachi car is quick.”
Practice 2 takes place at 01:45am AEST Sunday April 16 ahead of the Firestone Fast Six Qualifying.
Stan Sport will bring all live and ad-free key sessions throughout the weekend.
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