Austin FP2: View from the ground

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AUSTIN – As last year, I spent the majority of today’s second 90-minute free practice session at Circuit of the Americas perusing the grounds and scoping things out. My MotorSportsTalk colleague Luke Smith has the details on the latest Mercedes 1-2 practice sweep on-track. A few observations to follow, after the changes from last year:

THE SOUND CHANGE

I’m really torn after this session. When you’ve had a taste of the visceral, screaming, blow-your-eardrums-out V10s and V8s, it’s impossible not to feel a little bit disappointed after hearing the softer, quieter V6s. Yet at the same time, there are positives.

You can carry on a couple conversations while the session was ongoing. If you’re thinking of catering to families, particularly young children, the V6s are brilliant… because that noise is no longer something that is jarring and affects their ears at a young age. You’re also still aware there is mind-blowing technology currently in the new V6s, they’re in their first year of a several-year development process, and F1 remains on the cutting edge.

But a comment I heard from IMSA prototype veteran Guy Cosmo, here in Austin coaching in the Ferrari Challenge this weekend, I would tend more to agree with: “You want this to be a spectacle in every way, shape or form. The sound right now isn’t that.”

Hear hear, Guy… and of course I heard him so much better because the sound was that much quieter.

SPEED AND DIRECTION CHANGE

The noise change affects the visceral, on-the-ground perspective because even though the cars are faster than other series here, and appear faster, they oddly don’t feel faster.

Allow me to explain. A year ago, pairing the noise of the V8s with the intense, rapid-fire change of direction through the esses was just mind-blowing. It was surreal to witness.

And although the change of direction and speed was evident again this year, it didn’t feel as intense as it did some 12 months ago because you don’t hear the shrieks coming at you – you hear more of a whistle. It’s an intense, cool whistle more than a ground-pounding whistle, if that makes sense, of an Audi, Toyota or Porsche hybrid.

The speed of course is still there. Although the fastest lap in COTA history was recorded by Sebastian Vettel – with that pesky V8-powered Renault in the back of his Red Bull in 2012 at 1:35.657 – times are down thus far this year to the 1:39 range. Lewis Hamilton was fastest today at 1:39.085 in FP2, in the all-conquering Mercedes W05. That was on Pirelli’s medium and the times will go down once they get onto the softs.

By comparison, the WEC pole this year was a 1:48.993 from the Toyota TS040 Hybrid; the TUDOR Championship saw best times of 1:57.808 (P2-spec Ligier JS P2 Honda) and 1:58.643 (DP-spec Corvette DP) in qualifying.

CROWD GAUGE

I think there’s a good chance the Friday crowd numbers are down from last year’s announced total of 58,276, but I hope I’m wrong.

Judging from a walk through from the paddock across the bridge at Turn 3, up to Turn 11 and then back down to Turn 1, it was noticeably lighter on the grounds and definitely lighter in the grandstands. Notable here too is that at the west side of Turn 11, a grandstand has been removed and vendors in the area have been reduced.

The upside for COTA? If they can get more than 50,334, which was the announced total for the Lone Star Le Mans WEC/IMSA weekend in September, the Friday of the Grand Prix weekend will have outdrawn an entire sports car weekend for the second straight year.

Overall though, the passion and intense knowledge of the fans was there, and there were some great costumes given it was Halloween. One that stood out to me beyond the obvious was a young kid in a McDonald’s French fries suit, except instead of the McD’s “M” it had a Scuderia Ferrari Prancing Horse. Brilliant stuff.

NBC/NBCSN SCHEDULE FROM UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX

IndyCar results, points after Detroit Grand Prix

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DETROIT — Alex Palou topped the results of an NTT IndyCar Series race for the second time this season, extending his championship points lead with his victory in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

The Chip Ganassi Racing driver, who also won the GMR Grand Prix (and the Indy 500 pole position) last month, holds a 51-point lead over teammate Marcus Ericsson (ninth at Detroit) through seven of 17 races this season.

Ganassi, which placed all four of its drivers in the top 10 at Detroit, has three of the top four in the championship standings with Scott Dixon ranked fourth after a fourth at Detroit.

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Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden is third in the standings after taking a 10th at Detroit. Pato O’Ward slipped to fifth in the points after crashing and finishing 26th

Here are the IndyCar results and points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:


RESULTS

Click here for the official box score from the 100-lap race on a nine-turn, 1.645-mile street course in downtown Detroit.

Lap leader summary

Full lap chart

Best section times

Full section data

Event summary

Pit stop summary

Here is the finishing order in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix with starting position in parentheses, driver, engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (1) Alex Palou, Honda, 100, Running
2. (7) Will Power, Chevrolet, 100, Running
3. (9) Felix Rosenqvist, Chevrolet, 100, Running
4. (4) Scott Dixon, Honda, 100, Running
5. (13) Alexander Rossi, Chevrolet, 100, Running
6. (12) Kyle Kirkwood, Honda, 100, Running
7. (2) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 100, Running
8. (11) Marcus Armstrong, Honda, 100, Running
9. (6) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 100, Running
10. (5) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 100, Running
11. (24) Colton Herta, Honda, 100, Running
12. (17) Devlin DeFrancesco, Honda, 100, Running
13. (8) Simon Pagenaud, Honda, 100, Running
14. (20) Agustin Canapino, Chevrolet, 100, Running
15. (15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 100, Running
16. (18) Christian Lundgaard, Honda, 100, Running
17. (25) Jack Harvey, Honda, 100, Running
18. (14) Rinus VeeKay, Chevrolet, 100, Running
19. (23) Helio Castroneves, Honda, 100, Running
20. (19) Benjamin Pedersen, Chevrolet, 97, Running
21. (22) Santino Ferrucci, Chevrolet, 97, Running
22. (26) Sting Ray Robb, Honda, 97, Running
23. (21) David Malukas, Honda, 85, Contact
24. (3) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 80, Contact
25. (27) Graham Rahal, Honda, 50, Contact
26. (10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 41, Contact
27. (16) Callum Ilott, Chevrolet, 1, Contact

Winner’s average speed: 80.922 mph; Time of Race: 02:01:58.1171; Margin of victory: 1.1843 seconds; Cautions: 7 for 32 laps; Lead changes: 10 among seven drivers. Lap Leaders: Palou 1-28; Power 29-33; O’Ward 34; Palou 35-55; Power 56-64; Palou 65; Rossi 66; Newgarden 67-68; Kirkwood 69; Ericsson 70-76; Palou 77-100.


POINTS

Click here for the points tally in the race.

Here are the points standings after the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix:

Drivers

Entrants

Engine manufacturers

Pit stop performance

Top 10 in points: Palou 273, Ericsson 222, Newgarden 203, Dixon 194, O’Ward 191, Rossi 176, McLaughlin 175, Power 172, Herta 149, Rosenqvist 148.

Rest of the standings: Grosjean 145, Kirkwood 142, Lundgaard 136, Ilott 116, VeeKay 108, Ferrucci 105, Armstrong 101, Rahal 99, Malukas 91, Daly 88, DeFrancesco 81, Castroneves 80, Harvey 78, Canapino 77, Pagenaud 72, Pedersen 61, Robb 55, Takuma Sato 37, Ed Carpenter 27, Ryan Hunter-Reay 20, Tony Kanaan 18, Marco Andretti 13, RC Enerson 5, Katherine Legge 5.

Next race: IndyCar will head to Road America for the Sonsio Grand Prix, which will take place June 18 with coverage starting at 1 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.