After half an hour of the first two-hour session for the Indy 500 veterans, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Ericsson sat at the top of the speed charts.
Having lapped the 2.5-mile course in 40.1194s, 224.330mph, last year's Indy 500 winner was over one mile per hour clear of Colton Herta of Andretti Autosport and Dale Coyne Racing’s David Malukas.
Another former winner, Pagenaud was fourth for Meyer Shank Racing and was followed by the quickest of the Penske drivers, Josef Newgarden, with 2008 winner Scott Dixon and 2018 winner Will Power.
The first caution of the session flew 45 minutes in for a track inspection.
When action resumed, two of the Ed Carpenter Racing cars – that of team owner Carpenter and Conor Daly got nice tows from Takuma Sato to jump into second and fourth respectively, with Pagenaud slotting between the two.
A second yellow flew with 45 minutes to go, again for a track inspection, and action resumed 15 minutes later.
Source: Autosport