Indianapolis – Practice: A strong start as Linus refrains from new tyres

Linus appeared down in seventh place on the timesheets as Indy Lights running got underway at the IMS road course with the sole practice session of the weekend – but the real picture will only emerge in qualifying after Linus bucked the trend by staying off any new-tyre run.

In the first double-header event of the season, a single practice session is all the drivers get before qualifying, leaving little time to prepare for the two races.

The unusual schedule – with Indy Lights normally contesting just a single race and a brace of practice sessions – also means tyre allocation is slightly revised this weekend.

Drivers get two new sets of Cooper tyres, as well as one set of carry-overs from the previous round at Barber Motorsports Park.

While the rest of the field opted to use a set of fresh rubber in practice, Linus opted instead to keep an extra set for later in the weekend, completing the entire session on used Barber tyres.

The strategy left him down in seventh in practice, some 0.4s off the ultimate pace set by Andretti Autosport’s Matthew Brabham.

LINUS: “We sacrificed a bit of performance in practice to be better placed for qualifying and the races. I think being four tenths off is a really good position and hopefully the lack of fresh-tyre references won’t hurt me in qualy and we can take full advantage of what we want to achieve.

“It’s really warm today – warmer than anyone has really experienced around here in Indy Lights before – so the track is quite difficult to read. So far so good, though, and let’s see what we can do in qualifying.”

Qualifying takes place at 2:00-2:30 pm / 20.00-20.30.

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