DETROIT, Mich. — A bumpy track surface. A four-lane, double-sided pit lane.
Welcome to the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
It was the first chance for the 27 drivers in the NTT IndyCar Series to hit the streets of Detroit in Friday’s 90-minute practice session on this new nine-turn, 1.645-mile street course that pays homage to the original race course that was used for Formula One and later CART.
Formula One competed in the United States Grand Prix from 1982 to 1988. Beginning in 1989, CART took over the famed street race through 1991. In 1992, the race was moved to Belle Isle, where it was held through last year with the exception of 2009-2011 when the race was shut down after the economic plunge of 2008.
Pato O’Ward of Arrow McLaren was the fastest driver in Friday’s session with a fast time of 1 minute, 3.0773 seconds at a speed of 93.885 mph in the No. 5 Chevrolet. He was followed by Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, who clocked a lap at 1:03.1759 (93.738 mph) in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda.
Kyle Kirkwood of Andretti Autosport was third in the No. 27 AutoNation Honda at 1:03.5140 (93.239 mph) followed by Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing in the No. 10 Honda at 1:03.6388 (93.056 mph).
Felix Rosenqvist of Arrow McLaren rounded out the top five at 1:03.6929 (92.977 mph) in the No. 6 Chevrolet. Josef Newgarden of Team Penske, who won last Sunday’s 107th Indianapolis 500, was 15th at 1:04.4376 (91.903 mph) in the No. 2 Hitachi Chevrolet.
The bumpy race course saw a few drivers off course, a few more brush the wall, but there were no serious incidents as the drivers tried to get a handle on the track surface.
“It was honestly less carnage than I expected,” Kirkwood said. “I think a lot of people went off in the runoffs, but no one actually hit the wall, I don’t think, which actually surprised me. Hats off to them for keeping it clean, including myself.
“It was pretty good. It was quite a bit less grip than I think everyone expected. Maybe a little bit more bumpy down into turn three than everyone expected. But overall, they did a good job between the two manufacturers. I’m sure everyone had pretty much the same we were able to base everything off of. We felt pretty close to maximum right away.
“You’re close to the wall as always. If you’re not almost brushing it, then you’re not doing a good enough job.”
Kirkwood said with the tight radius corners, it’s going to be hard to get a flying lap in qualifications. He believes the drivers will try to get through single file in turn three, a hairpin turn.
“That’s never really the case, right?” Kirkwood responded. “It still creates passing opportunity, but not as much as what it looks like when you first go walk the track. It seems like this is wide open, it will be pretty easy here. Once you’re doing 180, 190 down into there, it doesn’t feel as wide.
“It kind of funnels in. It’s strange because it’s such a long brake zone, it’s the only place on a calendar that we brake through a 500 board so far. It’s such a long brake zone that you kind of lose feel of how close you’re getting to the corner almost. It’s a bit strange.
“But that’s just due to the surface of the track because it’s so bumpy heading down into there, like, you’re playing with the brake pedal, so you don’t lock up, or the car jumps on you in the middle of brake zone. It’s awkward. People are going to be hesitant because of that to want to make passes happen.”
As the fastest driver in the Friday’s session, O’Ward likes the challenge this race course provides and believes by the time the race starts on Sunday, many of the drivers in the field will figure it out.
“It’s definitely a unique track,” O’Ward said. “I think it has a lot of characteristics from all the other street courses that we go to in terms of, like, pavements, certain type of corners.
“We rolled off strong. I think there’s a lot of first times, first time here, first time with the double pit lane. I think that’s going to be interesting in the race with the blend line where it is. I think the pit exit is going to be something to look out for in both qualifying, like impeding. I don’t know if they’re going to mark it as impeding but it definitely gets you out of place if someone is sent there while you’re on a flyer.
“It’s a work in progress. Probably not a lot of space to work with. I know everybody is doing their best. It’s a challenging track, I can tell you that.”
Rosenqvist said the cars have to depend on mechanical grip, more than aerodynamic downforce because of the slow-speed corners.
“You are not using the wings of the car really here,” Rosenqvist explained. “It’s a very mechanical grip track. Pretty much every corner is first gear except for the one leading onto the back straight. You’re just kind of, like Kyle said, the car is always doing something weird. It’s dancing around, bouncing around, and at the same time you’re trying to keep it off the wall.
“It’s busy from the driver’s standpoint. It’s very busy. It’s probably going to catch people out in the race, I think. I think it will be really interesting to see going into the hairpin because I was never really close to another car. But to try to make a pass, like how that’s going to work with a bump there and braking. It’s going to be for sure entertaining.
“It’s a new challenge. I think the goal is to roll out and see how it is, try to make it good.
“As Pato said, we rolled off pretty strong. We’re definitely in the window.”