Alexander Rossi’s bid to repeat his 2019 triumph at Road America began by leading the field in the opening practice session of the Sonsio Grand Prix weekend.

The #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet went around the 14-turn, 4.014-mile natural terrain road course with a fastest lap of 1:41.7790s to average 141.978mph. Rossi was part of the group of IndyCar drivers that tested at Road America last week and his findings seem to have paid dividends despite one critical difference between tests.

“It was interesting for us, having tested here last week, to understand the difference in the tire that Firestone brought for this weekend because no one that tested here had the actual tyre,” Rossi said. “Obviously trying the reds for the first time, it was an interesting session. Definitely lots to digest overnight.”

Chicago native David Malukas was second fastest in the #18 Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Motorsports Honda, just 0.0862s off of Rossi’s pace.

This is Malukas’s adopted home race as the track is about 150 miles away from his hometown. The sophomore driver did several interviews for local Chicago media outlets to try and boost their presence at the Wisconsin track following a test last week at Road America. 

“We tested here, we found a couple things,” Malukas said. “At the end of the day we were kind of like, speed is still there, car feels very good. Our hopes were high coming into today.

“Obviously went out and, again, we definitely found something. I think we’re a little bit closer now and kind of can restart our season. The way I’m explaining it is we had a mid-season slumber, the car was sleeping, getting ready, now we’ve awakened and we’re ready for the second half.” 

Third fastest was 2021 Road America winner Alex Palou, 0.1696s behind Rossi’s time. New Zealand’s Scott Dixon and Pato O’Ward rounded out the top five. 

Marcus Ericsson was sixth fastest ahead of Christian Lundgaard in the#45 Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Bobby Rahal’s team underwent some engineering staff changes after one car failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 and the other cars started 29th, 30th and 32nd. 

While the majority of the shop work may not have changed, the staff revamp may have paid dividends as teammate Graham Rahal’s #15 Honda was 11th fastest in practice. 

“We knew that we needed to do something different and we have as a team and as an organization,” Lundgaard said. “And I mean, obviously we hope for it to be the right thing. That’s the path we’ve gone down now so we’ll wait and see.” 

New Zealand’s own Marcus Armstrong and Scott McLaughlin were 10th and 15th, respectively. Australia’s Will Power was 17th.

 Road America’s new pavement resulted in much faster lap times throughout the field. The entire field eclipsed Rossi’s 2022 pole time of 1 minute, 44.8656s thanks to the track’s new pavement. For reference, Simon Pagenaud’s fastest lap in 27th place was 1 minute, 43.4092s.  

That new pavement led to increased corner speeds, punishing even the slightest mis-judgement of a corner’s apex with an off-track excursion. 

Despite a few drivers putting a couple of wheels off track on corner exit at various points, the practice session was quite clean for all 27 competitors. There were no red flags and only one spin when Santino Ferrucci went into Canada Corner a bit too quickly and spun the #14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet around. The Connecticut native kept the car running and made his way back to the pits. 

IndyCar’s next practice session is 09:55 local time, or 12:55  AEST.