‘Torn up by Rottweilers’ - An eventful start to IndyCar’s Laguna Seca weekend

Credit: Joe Skibinski

As IndyCar heads into the homestretch of its 2025 season, Round 14 at the iconic Laguna Seca circuit is underway. And it was an eventful opening practice session to begin the weekend’s proceedings on Friday…

Tricky track catches drivers out

Practice 1 for this year’s Grand Prix of Monterey was arguably the most action-packed Friday practice session of the season so far. Countless drivers were caught out by challenging track conditions, which drivers remarked were different to those in 2024.

“The grip level is down quite a bit,” said Andretti Global’s Colton Herta. “It seems like a northern California thing, where like Sonoma and this place, they just get chewed up. It’s like they have a pack of Rottweilers out on the track in the off-season just tearing up the track.

“Literally, the apex, the corners, it just looked chewed up and beat up. It’s kind of needed here because the racing is very stale without tyre deg. The races before the repave were better races. I think it’s going to be more catered to that type of race.”

This is the first visit to Laguna Seca with the added hybrid weight - the final track that IndyCar has not raced on since the system was introduced last July. Coupled with the track being in its third season since a repave in 2023, an incident-filled session ensued.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (RLL)’s Devlin DeFrancesco was the first driver to suffer contact late in the all-car session, running wide between Turn 4 and Turn 5 and failing to save his No.30 Honda, helplessly slamming into the concrete wall. Left-side damage ended DeFrancesco’s session but he walked away unaided.

Shortly after, Ed Carpenter Racing (ECR)’s Alexander Rossi - at his home race in the car of event title sponsor Java House - made heavy front and rear contact with the Turn 6 tyre barrier after finding himself wide in the gravel. Rossi was also unassisted in exiting his No.20 Chevy but finds his team with another big repair job after freak wall contact in Toronto.

Credit: Paul Hurley

There was one further red flag in the second of the two 12-minute group segments at the end of practice, with Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden spinning under braking and finding himself beached at the Corkscrew, requiring his No.2 Chevy to be retrieved from the gravel.

Plenty more drivers suffered moments throughout practice - notably ECR’s Christian Rasmussen spinning at the Turn 2 hairpin before multiple other wheel-dropping and off-track excursions. PREMA Racing’s Callum Ilott was another driver to spin and later produce a remarkable off-track save to prevent an incident similar to Rossi’s.

Chip Ganassi Racing (CGR)’s Scott Dixon and Dale Coyne Racing pair Jacob Abel and Rinus VeeKay were also among those who found themselves facing the wrong way as drivers were left surprised at the drastic drop-off in grip since last year.

“It seems to be lower grip and just more penalising this year,” Arrow McLaren’s Christian Lundgaard said. “I think we saw a lot more mistakes from drivers due to that. I think a lot of us are going to make mistakes this weekend because we are trying to squeeze everything out of it.”

O’Ward paces practice from Herta

Pato O’Ward, winner of two of the last three races for Arrow McLaren and second to CGR’s Álex Palou in the championship, was quickest in opening practice. 

His 01:09.2069s lap set in Group 1 of the split segments was a little over 1.5s slower than last year’s opening practice-topping time - without the added hybrid weight - from Scott McLaughlin. O’Ward ousted Herta by 0.1105s, with the Andretti driver pacing Group 2.

Meyer Shank Racing (MSR)’s Marcus Armstrong was third on the combined time sheets, followed by Palou, who led the initial all-car session ahead of O’Ward. The championship leader is the defending pole and race winner at Laguna Seca, where he has never finished off the podium in four visits.

Credit: Chris Owens

Ilott was an impressive fifth off the back of his and PREMA’s best result yet in Toronto, followed in the top 10 by the all-action Rasmussen, Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood, MSR’s Felix Rosenqvist, RLL rookie Louis Foster and Lundgaard. In 14th - only two positions behind teammate VeeKay - Abel’s session was standout after his tough rookie season.

Scott McLaughlin was the lead Penske driver in 16th - one position ahead of Will Power. Newgarden ended the session 26th, splitting the crashed pair of DeFrancesco and Rossi. 

Dixon was another notable name down the order in 24th - one position behind AJ Foyt Racing’s Santino Ferrucci, who is fit to drive this weekend after suffering a minor hand injury in the warm-up crash that sidelined him in Toronto last weekend. Ferrucci’s teammate David Malukas ended the session in 11th.

‘Herta’s House’ again this weekend?

A two-time Laguna Seca pole-sitter and race winner, plus runner-up last year, Herta has started the weekend in the way he means to go on in search of a first win of 2025.

“Car felt great,” he said after finishing top of his group. “I think there’s a better lap time in there for us but just didn’t get everything out of it. When that happens and you’re still up near the top, it feels really good. I’m happy.”

Herta won two races last year en-route to finishing runner-up to Palou in the standings but currently sits eighth and has only a solitary podium compared to his six in 2024. In his home state, there would be no better place to win for the first time since last year’s finale.

“You never know if you’re going to be good year to year [at the same track],” Herta said. “This is definitely a place that has been really kind to me in the past. But it’s too competitive to have the arrogance that you think you’re going to arrive and be just as good as last year. 

“I’m happy to see that we seem to be very quick still and the car seems to be very good.”

Credit: Joe Skibinski

Lundgaard “p**sed off” at performance

While 10th in practice seems a respectable start to the weekend on the face of it, Lundgaard was less than enamoured with the performance of his No.7 Arrow McLaren Chevy.

“We were a lot slower than we were anticipating. We seemed to lack some pace,” he said. “So we’ve got some work to do overnight to find that. I always enjoy coming here so having a very frustrating Practice 1 is not really how I want to start my weekend. 

“I was very surprised. Very frustrated. I don’t get p**sed off very often and this is one of the moments where I definitely am. We need to take our time to try to figure out how to make it better. I don’t know if we missed something completely or if something is wrong.

“I know I’m fast around here so I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”

Encouragement can be taken from the fact that O’Ward topped the session. But Lundgaard and teammate Siegel, who was 19th in the order, have some digging to do ahead of qualifying and Sunday’s race.

“Obviously Pato was extremely quick,” Lundgaard said. “We have some good data to look at. We need to investigate it on the stand and analyse the differences there and make sure we get out on top for tomorrow.”

The return of old Laguna Seca? 

With the repave of the track two years ago, Laguna Seca changed significantly. But with a couple of years of weathering, there is a sense that the track has returned close to what it was pre-repave.

“It’s always evolving,” Herta said. “The track feels incredibly different to what we had last year. It’s an interesting one. It’s one that it’s fun to come back year after year because it always changes. It always changes definitely.

“It’s looking a little bit more like older Laguna Seca, which I like. I think it opens up the passing a lot more and the raceability of the racetrack is going to be a lot better.”

Credit: Joe Skibinski

The sense after opening practice is that tyres will likely degrade much more than in the last two years, which was previously a key characteristic of races at Laguna Seca.

“[The track] is rougher and has less overall grip so that plays a huge role in how it affects the tyres and how it feels on the track,” Herta said. “It seems like there’s more deg than previous years by a good chunk. But it’s nowhere near the extent of 2019 or 2022.” 

At this stage, the drivers are unsure how the softer alternate tyre may perform and how long stints could be on the compound. The theory is that it will likely degrade very quickly, though Herta recalls that being a disproven theory at the Thermal Club earlier this year.

Regardless, an eventful opening practice session points towards an entertaining weekend.

“This is one of those tracks, if it’s a clean race, it’s going to be a fun race because the degradation has always been very fun from a race perspective,” Lundgaard said. “And it looks like the track is degrading in that way as it was in 2022. We’re all pretty excited for that.”