Rossi to the front in third COTA practice

The final practice session ahead of this afternoon’s qualifying for the IndyCar Classic at Circuit of The Americas race featured a flurry of Hondas leading the way as Alexander Rossi (1m46.9148s) topped the 24 drivers in attendance.

Rossi’s No. 27 Andretti Autosport Honda was nominally faster than Chip Ganassi Racing rookie Felix Rosenqvist (+0.1388s) in the No. 10 Honda, and after the top two, a wider gap emerged to Graham Rahal in third (+0.5249s). Rahal went for a wild ride over the crest of Turn 9 during the session, executing a broadslide without damaging the No. 15 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda.

Rahal's wild ride. Image by Marshall Pruett.

Rossi’s teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay was fourth in the No. 28 Honda (+0.6215s), and in fifth, the first of the Chevy runners, Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, was more than a half-second (+0.6224s) behind Rossi in the overcast conditions.

The first incident of the event went to Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports’ Marcus Ericsson, who went off nose-first at Turn 19. Coming in the final moments of the 45-minute session, IndyCar threw the checkered flag as the Swedish rookie’s No. 7 Honda was extricated from the barriers.

RESULTS

UP NEXT: Qualifying, 2:00 p.m. CT