Pato O’Ward topped first Practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Arrow McLaren SP ahead of Christian Lundgaard and Alex Palou.
Scott McLaughlin finished fourth for Team Penske ahead of Jack Harvey on the 2.4 mile circuit.
At the green light a multitude of cars joined the circuit at a very damp circuit to begin the 1 hour 15 minute session.
Most of the cars who left the pits returned to the pit lane after an installation lap as Benjamin Pederson and Callum Ilott continued to set lap times.
Colton Herta had a small fire at the back of his Andretti Autosport car as he came back to the pits which was quickly put out.
Perderson held the quickest time with a 1:24.4988 ahead of the Juncos Hollinger Racing duo Ilott and Agustin Canapino 10 minutes into the session.
15 minutes into the session, Lundgaard sat atop the timesheets with his 1:10.8665, utilising his extra set of Firestone Primary tyres that rookies receive in first practice.
Andretti Autosport’s Romain Grosjean usurped the Dane’s effort with 52 minutes to go setting a 1:10.8322, at a circuit he’s finished second at twice in 2021.
The times continued to tumble as Josef Newgarden became the pacesetter before he was quickly beaten by British driver Harvey with 47 minutes left on the clock.
Turn 1 proved to be a tricky corner at IMS as Felix Rosenqvist and O’Ward ran wide and used the escape road on the outside of the track.
Alex Palou then went to the top of the timesheets for Chip Ganassi ahead of Scott Dixon with a 1:10.2689 with 40 minutes to go.
The reigning champion Will Power had a quiet first practice and sat in P20 for Team Penske in the opening session of the weekend after driving 12 laps.
Palou continued to hold the quickest time of the session ahead of his team mate Scott Dixon and Harvey in third place.
Newgarden found himself in fourth place with 22 minutes to go in front of last year’s Indy 500 winner Marcus Ericsson.
Herta continued to sit in pit lane in the final 20 minutes of first practice in a session where he missed out on valuable track time for Andretti.
McLaughlin improved to second place place in the final 14 minutes, setting a 1:10.1946 as Ilott fitted the softer alternate tyres.
The British driver moved into fourth place ahead of his compatriot Harvey with a 1:10.4085 before diving into the pits.
Power became Palou’s closest challenger with 10 minutes remaining seconds before Lundgaard and Harvey improved to first and second place.
Rosenqvist usurped Lundgaard on the alternates prior to O’Ward setting the quickest time showing the red side walled tyres could produce sequential quick efforts. The Mexian led the Dane, Palou, McLaughlin and Harvey when the chequered flag came out.
Herta rejoined the session in the closing stages of the session for an installation lap after a frustrating session for the number 26 car with an oil leak that needed to be fixed.
