LEEDS, Ala. – Rinus VeeKay of The Netherlands paced Saturday morning’s NTT IndyCar Series practice session for Sunday’s Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama. The 21-year-old driver put the No. 21 Sonax Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing on top with a fast time of 1:05.9264 around the 17-turn, 2.3-mile Barber Motorsports Park.
“I knew we had potential yesterday, but really didn’t know we would be the fastest today,” VeeKay said. “I’m happy, yeah. I had a half-second gain on the Reds and we did a proper tire run when everyone was on pit lane.
“I’m happy. Being fast is enjoyable.”
Mexico’s Pato O’Ward was second in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet at 1:06.0136. Colton Herta’s No. 26 Gainbridge Honda was third at 1:06.0434 for Andretti Autosport.
New Zealand’s Scott McLaughlin was fourth for Team Penske at 1:06.1233 in the No. 3 Chevrolet. Romain Grosjean of Geneva, Switzerland was fifth at 1:06.2170 in the No. 28 Honda for Andretti Autosport, despite running into the gravel pit at one point in practice.
“I was on a super good lap, a .59 on blacks, and I missed my braking point and went a bit wide,” Grosjean said. “It’s not good on gravel, but it’s very good on track.
“I think we have a very, very good baseline. I’m super happy with that and looking forward to having a good qualifying today.”
About 15 minutes into the session, Alexander Rossi’s bad luck that has plagued him for much of the past three seasons continued. Rossi lost control of his No. 27 NAPA AutoNation Honda in Turn 17 and slammed the wall. A piece of the gearbox house flew across the track and hit the front wing on Helio Castroneves’ No. 06 AutoNation Honda at Meyer-Shank Racing, damaging the car.
That brought out the red flag to stop practice. Both cars were towed back to the paddock. Rossi’s Andretti Autosport crew is working on the extensive damage on his No. 27 entry in time for qualifications, which at that time were scheduled to begin in about three hours.
Ironically, Castroneves was also penalized five minutes in practice even though though the piece of debris actually hit his car.
Romain Grosjean, who had the fast time at 1:06.2170, lost control in turns 8 and 9 and went into the gravel in his No. 28 Honda. He was able to keep his engine fired and drive away from the incident that came with about 20 minutes left in practice.
Grosjean would later lose the No. 1 position to first Mexico’s Pato O’Ward and then on the next lap, The Netherlands’ Rinus VeeKay, who turned a lap at 1:06.1051 in the No. 21 Sonax Chevrolet. O’Ward’s fast time was 1:06.1774 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP.
Team Penske’s Will Power beached his No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet in the gravel in turns 7 and 8 with 12 minutes left for the second red flag of the session.
Power was penalized five minutes for bringing out the red flag.
He made it back on track in time to take a few laps before the session ended.
The teams return for qualifications at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. It will be broadcast on the Peacock Premium streaming network.