Will Power quickest in Laguna Seca open test

Will Power took advantage of a freshly-repaved WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca to set the quickest time in the pre-event test ahead of the season-ending Firestone Grand Prix for the NTT IndyCar Series.

The two-time IndyCar champion set a fastest lap of 1:07.2762 sec. to average 119.757 mph. Power’s fastest lap unofficially beat the qualifying track record set in 2000 by Helio Castroneves by just under half a second.

“Very nice, very smooth, a lot of grip,” Power said of the track surface. “Obviously tough offline. Yeah, it’s incredibly fast. I don’t know what was qualifying last year, pole? Five seconds quicker, yeah? Four seconds, yeah. It’s getting there.”

Christian Lundgaard was second fastest ahead of Scott McLaughlin, Juri Vips and Marcus Ericsson to round out the top five. The top 10 drivers were all faster than Castroneves’s track record.

There were numerous delays for off-track excursions as drivers tested the limits of the new pavement. Much like Road America, the first opportunity of on-track action required some time to allow drivers to get acclimated to the new surface.

“The other thing is not only, like, calibrating your mind in terms of what the limit of the car and the corner is, but every time you go out there’s more rubber that’s going down, right? Even second, third run tires, you’re still improving,” said sixth-fastest driver Alexander Rossi.

“It’s a moving target for a while, but then it will reach a point where it’s not. I think that’s when it gets challenging. Still, it just keeps going quicker.”

Friday’s practice session starts at 2:30 p.m. local time, 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning AEST time.

Open test results:

1. Will Power
2. Christian Lundgaard
3. Scott McLaughlin
4. Juri Vips
5. Marcus Ericsson
6. Alexander Rossi
7. Pato O’Ward
8. Felix Rosenqvist
9. Kyle Kirkwood
10. Scott Dixon
11. Graham Rahal
12. Alex Palou
13. Rinus VeeKay
14. Santino Ferrucci
15. Josef Newgarden
16. Romain Grosjean
17. David Malukas
18. Colton Herta
19. Marcus Armstrong
20. Agustin Canapino
21. Devlin DeFrancesco
22. Benjamin Pedersen
23. Callum Ilott
24. Tom Blomqvist
25. Ryan Hunter-Reay
26. Sting Ray Robb
27. Helio Castroneves