Yahoo Autos Palou sweeps Friday sessions with quick qualy simulation at Thermal
Alex Palou swept Friday’s test sessions at The Thermal club, backing up his top morning time with another leading run during the three-hour afternoon session.
Palou’s 1m39.337s lap in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda was well clear of Meyer Shank Racing’s Felix Rosenqvist (+0.443s) and the rest of the field, which had the two Honda representatives followed by the Chevy-powered Romain Grosjean (+0.812s) from Juncos Hollinger Racing and Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay (+0.888s) in another zip code.
Rounding out the top six, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard was fifth (+0.954s) and Team Penske’s Will Power was another step back (+1.123s).
With the high ambient temperatures and equally high tire degradation to manage, most teams sat out during the peak heat to save their new sets of tires and put in qualifying simulation runs right at the end of the session which closed at 5 p.m. Qualifying for Sunday’s $1 Million Challenge takes place at 5 p.m. on Saturday, which aligns with the point on the clock where Palou, Rosenqvist, and a number of the quickest drivers focused their simulations.
“I think everyone’s holding onto tires because it really counts tomorrow — especially tomorrow,” Power said.
The first red flag of the event was required after 45 minutes of running when Christian Rasmussen’s car came to a halt, but the rest of the session was relatively clean. Action resumes at 9 a.m. PT on Peacock.
