The debut of the Nashville street circuit It did not disappoint or leave anyone indifferent. The layout of the Music City Grand Prix saw the public light before a full crowd in the stands and fulfilled more than expectations regarding the difficulty involved in having a lap through the numerous potholes present, especially at the end of the bridge straights, where a couple of cars flirted with getting more air than they should. Surprisingly, he ended up being a young pilot like Colton herta the one who best read the conditions in his favor.
The American driver of Andretti Autosport, victorious with authority in the urban area of St. Petersburg, scored with 10 minutes remaining a 1: 16,587 that had no response from any of its competitors. In fact, only one other driver managed to drop below 1.17, the highly experienced Scott Dixon, the only man on the current grid to prevail at the Nashville oval during his time in the category in the 2000s. He adapted to that need Romain grosjean, who narrowly surpassed Alexander rossi Y Marcus ericsson for the third position.
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They were one of the few drivers whose timing reflected an excellence that seemed beyond the reach of some competitors who did not hesitate to classify the track as “bumpier than Detroit” or as a track that “requires very violent driving”. Alex Palou He started the day formally knowing the six-position penalty on the grid that he already knew he was going to receive, due to his second unapproved engine change of the season as a result of that break on Bump Day at the Indianapolis 500. Fortunately for the championship leader, Ganassi seems to have hit the key to be competitive in urban areas, and the overall leader set the sixth fastest time, 1: 17.226, after 25 laps in total.
Palou was finding and scratching tenths little by little and without locating the walls, as it happened to others within the grid of 27. After completing his installation lap, Dalton Kellett suffered an unspecified mechanical problem it had no fix in the pit lane. A posteriori, Duck O’Ward, who only lasted seven laps and 20 minutes before a miscalculation in the twisty section led him to bounce between the walls, clearly damaging his car. And finally, five minutes from the end, Conor Daly lost the rear of his car, impacting laterally against the protections.
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Behind Palou, Felix Rosenqvist made good use of his Formula E experience to get the seventh fastest time, on Will Power, a Scott McLaughlin who was very satisfied with the challenges he faced. A little further back, in 12th position, he was local hero and reigning poleman-winner of the category, Josef Newgarden. In turn, Jimmie Johnson achieved a better time in this first session than Max Chilton, Santino Ferrucci and Cody Ware, but that same record had him 3.3 seconds behind the head, being more a matter of adaptation somewhat faster than pure speed and hard.
In general, the pilots have enjoyed this first approach to Nashville, in free practice sessions that have lasted half an hour longer than usual (75 minutes) and where the combination of physical demand with the necessary precision in the very narrow northern section has put the skills to the test. patience of more than one, as it will continue to do in the next two days. Saturday, the free seconds and the classification will be putting order on what was seen today.