Friday debrief: Andretti lay down early Long Beach marker

Credit: Chris Owens

Andretti Global and Will Power have set the early pace in IndyCar’s opening practice session on the streets of Long Beach, with championship leader Kyle Kirkwood and Marcus Ericsson finishing Friday’s running in third and sixth.

Power finished 0.1861 seconds quicker than Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who crashed at Turn 9 within the closing minutes of the first 12-minute split segment, in second. Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR)’s Álex Palou led Group 2 from Meyer Shank Racing (MSR)’s Marcus Armstrong, but that only placed the pair fourth and fifth overall.

DIVEBOMB unpacks the stories from Day One in California…

How opening practice unfolded

Running was punctuated within 10 minutes after Mick Schumacher’s Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL) machine came to a halt just beyond the fountain with a mechanical issue. Far from ideal, the Long Beach debutant logged a mere three laps.

The remainder of the all-skate running ran without interruption until a stoppage for debris on the frontstretch inside the closing three minutes. In the top five, Palou led MSR’s Felix Rosenqvist, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, McLaughlin and Penske’s David Malukas.

More qualifying-representative times were logged in the ensuing half-field group sessions as drivers turned to the softer alternate tyres. Power’s Group 1 lap time of 1:08.4489 was unbeaten, ahead of McLaughlin - despite sliding into the Turn 9 tyre barrier - and Kirkwood, with Ericsson, Rosenqvist and O’Ward rounding out the group’s top six.

“On the reds [softer alternate tyres], the car was very good,” said Power, podium-sitter in Round 3 in Arlington. “We still have things to improve but looking good. As you’ve seen over the years, the Andretti cars are really good here.”

Credit: Paul Hurley

McLaughlin, meanwhile, attributed his third crash in as many race weekends - after a qualifying accident in Arlington and puncturing of the catch fence in a heavy Barber second-practice shunt - to what felt like a denied downshift.

“It was a bit unfortunate,” he said. “Going in there, you’re committing pretty high. I probably didn’t have as much time because it was sliding for a long time. I grabbed a gear and it just locked the rear tyres and I was a bit of a passenger. We’ve got a rocket ship this weekend; it’s just a matter of putting it together.”

The second group ran interrupted and was headed by Palou and Armstrong, ahead of Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard, CGR’s Scott Dixon and Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR)’s Alexander Rossi. Kyffin Simpson completed the group’s top six but was 13th in the combined times, behind Juncos Hollinger Racing (JHR)’s Rinus VeeKay.

While he finished 16th overall - one position behind teammate Josef Newgarden - Malukas had been on a lap that looked poised to send him to the top of the Group 2 order until encountering the traffic of ECR’s Christian Rasmussen.

Dennis Hauger was the lead rookie in 17th for Dale Coyne Racing, two positions ahead of veteran teammate Romain Grosjean. AJ Foyt Racing rookie Caio Collet was 21st but ahead of experienced teammate Santino Ferrucci in 22nd on a tough day for the team.

Discounting Schumacher in last place after his mechanical problem, Sting Ray Robb was slowest for JHR, ahead of RLL’s Louis Foster, whose teammate Graham Rahal was 14th. Nolan Siegel was another adrift within his team in 18th for Arrow McLaren, as was Rasmussen in 20th compared to Rossi’s 10th-place time.

Credit: Chris Owens

Lundgaard driving “disconnected” car

On the face of things, it was a solid enough day for Lundgaard: sixth in the all-car session, third in his group and eighth overall. But the Dane, crowned Motorsport Driver of the Year by the Danish Automobile Foundation post-practice, was unhappy with his car.

“I was actually a little disappointed with where we were on balance from the get-go,” said Lundgaard, third-place finisher at Long Beach last year, post-practice. “We didn’t really seem to find that balance mid-session. We were in a little bit of a pickle going onto the alternates.

“It felt like a very disconnected car. I didn’t necessarily think I just had one problem; I had multiple issues trying to figure out the balance and the slower speed. But also the medium-speed corners, there seemed to be different axles of the car I was struggling with. 

“We’ll all sit down, analyse, understand which axle to fix first, which one is going to be the pure lap-time-finder. From there, see if we need to make any changes going into qualifying or not.”

It has been an interesting start to Lundgaard’s season. He sits third in the standings with two podiums - one apiece for street courses (St. Petersburg) and road courses (Barber) - inside the first four rounds. But he is yet to record a qualifying result better than 10th, starting 12th and a lowly 18th in St. Pete and Arlington.

“We’re a better race car on street courses than we are a qualifying car,” he said. “We know the Andrettis are strong on street courses; I don’t think that comes as a surprise to anybody. I don’t necessarily see all the Ganassis there [but] we definitely see Palou. 

“Then the Penskes, one race, they’re not; the next race, [they are there]. I would almost say we’re a little bit in that category. We definitely have some work to do to catch up to the No.10 [Palou] car and then all three Andrettis.”

Credit: Chris Owens

Rosenqvist searching for reset

Rosenqvist’s first two seasons with MSR have been defined by their fast-starting nature. But after four rounds in 2026, he is yet to record a top-10 result and sits 14th in points.

“It’s nice to come back here, a place we know we’re quick, try to do a little reset of the season,” he told the media after practice. “We rolled really well off the truck, which is always nice - just little adjustments here and there. 

“The hard thing in IndyCar [is] if you’re in a bad rhythm, there’s normally a lot of races in a very short time so you don’t really have time to sit down and look and go through everything. It’s been good to breathe a little bit and reset mentally and physically [in the recent break].”

Long Beach has been a happy hunting ground for Rosenqvist since joining MSR, particularly in qualifying, starting fourth last year and on pole the year prior. So with belief that the MSR package has levelled up again, what better place to rebound from a slow start to the year?

“We have better pit stops, strategy; all the little details have been, on paper, a lot better this year,” he said. “It’s annoying when you feel like you just need a few tenths to put it together. But the guys and girls have done a tremendous job. We’re sitting [eighth] in pit lane so far this year; that was probably our Achilles’ heel last year. A huge job from everyone.

“[The issues have] been more of a flow, momentum thing. Haven’t been fast enough, qualifying or race. It’s a matter of resetting a little bit and trying to find the flow. It always ebbs and flows in this sport. Sometimes it’s tough. But you’ve got to dig deep in times where you’re not performing.”

Credit: Paul Hurley

“The winner will be a two-stopper”

For this season, it is mandated that each driver must run two sets of alternate tyres in the race. Rosenqvist remarked that the soft tyres “hold up better” this year, leading Lundgaard to be fairly certain as to how the race will pan out on a track not renowned for tyre degradation.

“Seeing how the alternates are performing this year, it should be a two-stopper. I’m very interested in seeing if anyone is going to struggle to get to Lap 30 on whatever stint, making the reds last, because the pit stop penalty is huge. The winner will definitely be on a two-stopper. That makes strategy and starting position a lot more important, for sure.”

With that in mind, given the Fast Six session is reverting to what was trialled in Arlington, with pole-vying cars running individually, how may the qualifying approach change?

“It definitely makes it a little more interesting that there’s strategy in Q2 now,” said Lundgaard, with the driver topping the Fast 12 session now able to pick when they want to run in the Fast Six in a tweak to the Arlington format. 

“I want to be the fastest in the Fast 12 as well [so will] take a little more risk. At the end of the day, the worst thing that can happen in the Fast Six, if you don’t nail it, you start sixth. If you don’t nail Q2, you can be 12th. That’s a huge deficit.”

IndyCar is back on track for Practice 2 at 10:30 PT (18:30 BST) before qualifying at 15:30 PT (11:30 BST) on Saturday.