Rossi Sets The Opening Pace At Road America

Alexander Rossi at Road America. [John Wiedemann Photo]

Elkhart Lake, WI – Alexander Rossi topped the field on the new pavement at Road America during the opening practice session of the NTT IndyCar Series Sonsio Grand Prix presented by AMR.

Lapping the track in 1 minute 41.7790 seconds, Rossi in the #7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet held off David Malukas in his Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda by .0862 seconds in the 75 minute session.

Rossi is the defending polesitter for the Grand Prix and also was the 2019 race winner at Road America.

While he topped the speed chart, Rossi wasn’t completely satisfied. “It wasn’t a very clean run or laps by me, so I think there’s certainly quite a bit more in it, which is a good sign,” he explained. “You never get all you want out of it because usually you’re limited on the amount of tires you have and everything. It was interesting for us, having tested here last week, to understand the difference in the tire that Firestone brought for this weekend because no one that tested here had the actual tire. Obviously trying the reds for the first time. So it was an interesting session. Yeah, definitely lots to digest overnight.”
Rounding out the top five in quickest laps were: point leader Alex Palou and Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing along with Rossi’s Arrow McLaren teammate Pato O’Ward.

The IndyCar Series drivers return to the 4.014 mile track on Saturday for a second round of practice in the morning and qualifying in the early afternoon as the shoot to break the track record on the new pavement.

On Sunday the Sonsio Grand Prix is set to see the green flag wave at 12:23pm Central time.

RacingNation Crew

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