Pato O’Ward set the fastest time during the first practice session for the Java House Grand Prix of Monterey at Laguna Seca. The McLaren driver ultimately clocked in one-tenth of a second quicker than Colton Herta, followed closely by Marcus Armstrong and Alex Palou. The session had a chaotic character, with numerous spins and even three red flags.

Alex Palou quick in combined session

Early in the session, drivers discovered that the track surface had weathered significantly compared to last year. Not only did it offer noticeably less grip, but tire wear also proved to be unusually high.

As a result, a large number of drivers spun during the session, including Christian Rasmussen, Scott Dixon, Callum Ilott, Will Power and Rinus VeeKay. The pit exit also proved tricky for some drivers: both Power and Alex Palou went too wide there, crossed the solid line and were penalized with a drive-through penalty.

After the rookies had cleaned up the track during the opening minutes, Christian Lundgaard was the first high-profile name to appear at the top of the timing sheets. The fastest time was soon further improved, eventually ending up in Palou’s hands via Pato O’Ward. Palou’s name would remain at the top of the combined session until the end.

Red flags disrupt the session

The combined session was halted twice due to crashes. With eighteen minutes remaining on the clock, Devlin DeFrancesco went too wide through Turn 4, ended up in the sand next to the track and slammed into the wall.

The first part of the combined session came to an early halt when Jacob Abel and Alexander Rossi simultaneously ended up off-track. In Abel’s case it was an innocent spin, but Rossi had gone off in Turn 6 and made hard contact with the tire barriers.

After the combined segment, the field was split into two groups for qualifying simulations on the soft tires. In the first group, O’Ward set the fastest time, ahead of Marcus Armstrong and Palou. In the second group, Colton Herta ran a relatively early qualifying simulation, coming in one-tenth of a second slower than O’Ward in the first group.

However, the qualifying simulations in this group were seriously disrupted once again by a red flag. This time the cause was Josef Newgarden, who locked up his rear tires under braking for the Corkscrew and spun into the gravel. He couldn’t get going again on his own and needed assistance from the AMR Safety Team.

The session was slightly extended so all drivers could complete one final timed lap, but most had already gotten the best out of their soft tires. Only Felix Rosenqvist managed to break into the top ten, but O’Ward’s fastest time remained unchallenged.

Full results of the 1st free practice session on Laguna Seca