David Malukas was fastest on the first day of the Unser IndyCar Open Test at Phoenix Raceway on Tuesday.
The newest Team Penske driver got up to speed almost instantly around the 1-mile tri-oval, holding a place among the top five throughout the four hours of full-field running and vaulting into the top spot in the final hour with a speed of 172.605 mph (20.8569 seconds).
The pace by 24-year-old Chicagoan, driving the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet, knocked off teammate Josef Newgarden, who held the spot for the majority of the day. Newgarden, who was the first driver to run a sub-21s lap in the No. 2 Chevrolet, ended up 0.0708s behind Malukas.
Andretti Global occupied third and fourth with Will Power and Kyle Kirkwood, respectively. Power, who joined the organization over the offseason after 17 years with Team Penske, was the only other driver to run under 21s, pushing out a flying lap of 20.9661s (171.706 mph).
Reigning and four-time IndyCar Series champion Alex Palou was fifth, with his No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda nailing a fast lap at 171.357 mph.
The Meyer Shank Racing duo of Marcus Armstrong and Felix Rosenqvist were sixth and seventh, followed by Scott McLaughlin (Team Penske), Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing) and Alexander Rossi (Ed Carpenter Racing) rounding out the top 10. While there were nine cautions on the day, only one was for an incident.
During the last hour of the session, rookie Caio Collet went into Turn 4 and touched the outside wall before his No. 4 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet went into a half-spin and came to a stop at the inside of Turn 1. Motorsport.com talked to his race engineer, Mike Armbrester, who said Collet mentioned to him difficult visibility due to the sun entering Turn 4, which he suspected led to him dropping his left-side tires below the yellow line at the bottom of the turn’s banking and resulting into skating to the outside wall.
Only three drivers broke the century mark with total laps. Ed Carpenter Racing’s Christian Rasmussen logged the most laps on the day with 114. Rookie Mick Schumacher (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) ran 107 laps, while Sting Ray Robb (Juncos Hollinger Racing) ended with 103 laps.
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– The Motorsport.com Team