Alex Palou leads Monday practice for the Indy 500

Alex Palou bounced back after his disappointing qualifying session by showing his best form once again: the IndyCar Championship leader set the fastest time during Monday's practice session for the Indy 500. In a session entirely focused on race simulations, Palou set the top time early on. Helio Castroneves recorded the second-fastest lap of the day, followed by Takuma Sato. Polesitter Robert Shwartzman only managed the 26th fastest time.

Even before the start of the practice session, there was major news in Indianapolis. After the Team Penske cars of Will Power and Josef Newgarden were found to be illegal on Sunday due to an incorrectly mounted attenuator (a crumple zone at the rear of the car), additional penalties were handed out to both drivers:

Both cars were moved to the back of the grid. Newgarden will start the race from 32nd, Will Power from 33rd. This order is based on the results of Saturday’s qualifying.

The strategists for Power and Newgarden have been suspended for this race.

Both cars lose the points earned during qualifying.

Each car receives a $100,000 fine.

Both teams must wait to choose their pit stall location until all other teams have made their selections.

After three days of focusing on qualifying, the turbo boost was lowered again, the cars received more downforce, and all 33 remaining drivers turned their full attention to the race.

After the green flag waved to start the session, Alex Palou moved into first place by his fifth lap. The Dreyer & Reinbold Racing duo of Jack Harvey and Ryan Hunter-Reay set the second and third best times early in the session, ahead of Will Power and Christian Rasmussen.

However, Rasmussen’s session wouldn’t last long. Just thirteen minutes in, the rear end of his Ed Carpenter Racing car stepped out coming out of Turn 2, causing him to clip the wall with his right rear wheel and damage the suspension. The Danish driver tried to keep the car under control but eventually spun and made light contact with the inside wall. The damage to the #21 car was minimal, but his session was over.


Scott Dixon also didn’t complete many laps. After just six laps, he came into the pits with overheating issues, possibly related to the hybrid system. The #9 Chip Ganassi Racing crew pushed the car back to the garage, where it was determined that the issue couldn’t be fixed quickly.

During the session, Helio Castroneves and Takuma Sato managed to slot themselves between Palou and Harvey, but no one could match Palou’s pace.

The session was packed with race simulations, leading to a high number of laps completed: the 33 drivers combined for 2,067 laps, averaging 62 laps per driver. The busiest drivers were Callum Ilott and Will Power with 88 laps each, while Christian Rasmussen and Scott Dixon managed only seven and six laps, respectively.

Full results of the 8th free practice session on Indianapolis