The first test session of the day saw St Petersburg’s podium sitter Scott McLaughlin being the first driver out on track ahead of the two hours long practice.
Armstrong set the earliest pace in 1:39.887s, whereas his Ganassi teammate Alex Palou becoming the first driver to lap in the 1:38s after having lead both previous Thermal practice sessions. Sting Ray Robb suffered from lockup at Turn 1, while Ericsson ran slightly off track, jumping over a curb.
Fifteen minutes into the session, Callum Ilott, who is replacing again David Malukas behind the wheel of car no.6, leads the timings with a 1:38.778s, followed by Palou and Lundgaard.
The first red flag of the session was issued due to track inspections as after Newgarden and Herta passing by at Turn 5, a piece of pavement broke off.
It was a lengthy break of 50 minutes, with track workers fixing the issue with epoxy, but the session finally restarted at 10:05am local.
Among the first drivers to improve their previous early effort in the new session extended to 11:15am local there was Scott Dixon, who jumped up to P6 with a 1:39.603s
With one hour to go, this is the provisional top ten: Ilott, Palou, Lundgaard, O’Ward, Armstrong, Herta, Rosenqvist, Blomqvist, Power and Dixon.
Ganassi’s Simpson ran wide off track as the rookie driver is still getting used to the new track.
Romain Grosjean spun out at Turn 16-17 and stopped, causing another red flag in the very fragmented test session.
At the restart McLaughlin moved up to P4 with a 1:39.07s, but shortly after Kyle Kirkwood spun out and hit the barriers.
After his crash Grosjean has found extra speed as he moves up to P7.
Ilott held on to top spot, with Palou, Lundgaard, McLaughlin, O’Ward, Armstrong, Grosjean, Herta, Rosenqvist and Blomqvist rounding out the top 10.
