Thermal – EL3: Ilott fastest between the red flags

If Friday passed without any major incident, Saturday did not start in the same way at the Thermal Club! A quarter of an hour after the session kicked off, the red flag was out. Colton Herta actually hit debris at the exit of turn 5, debris coming from the track itself! It took the intervention teams almost 50 minutes to restore the track and inspect the entire circuit.

Once the quick-setting mixture was put into the asphalt, the session could resume. Initially scheduled for two hours, it was extended by 15 minutes to allow drivers and teams to have a little more track time. A few minutes after the cars returned to the track, the red flag was out again, for a spin of Romain Grosjean. Immobilized in the gravel, the Frenchman admitted to having attacked a little too much.

“I was too optimistic about the brakes! We were using very worn tires, we just used a set of tires this morning. I found a setting that worked well, I pushed too hard, it's my fault! », he explained on NBC Sports at the end of this second session. Seventh on the timesheet, the Juncos Hollinger Racing driver believes his car is even better than the raw result indicates.

“I think the car is better than what we see [on the times], some did their times early in the day, we waited a bit to have more representative conditions. »

Kirkwood is at fault too

If Grosjean was able to escape without damage on his No. 77 car, this was not the case for Kyle Kirkwood a few minutes later. The Andretti driver actually hit the rail, causing a new red flag. The American driver escaped unscathed, but his team will have some work to do to get the car ready for the fourth practice session and qualifying later today.

Red flag is out at The Thermal Club after this @KKirkwoodRacing incident#INDYCAR // #ThermalChallenge pic.twitter.com/cixtepWEFH

—NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) March 23, 2024

Once the checkered flag was waved, we found Callum Ilott, replacing the injured David Malukas, at the top of the timesheet. The Briton was ahead of Alex Palou, Christian Lundgaard, Scott McLaughlin and Pato O'Ward. The fourth practice session will be held from 21 p.m. to 23 p.m. French time, before qualifying at 1 a.m.

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