Hauger leads Pierson in Indy Nxt’s first Laguna Seca practice session

Photo: Travis Hinkle

Dennis Hauger set the pace in Indy Nxt’s first practice session of the weekend at Laguna Seca.

The championship leader was one of only two drivers to set a sub-1m15s laptime. His best effort was a 1m14.7484s, and he narrowly missed out on improving with his final effort.

Absent from the 19-car field on track for the 25-minute session was Andretti Cape’s Ricardo Escotto. The team announced shortly before the weekend’s action began that it had parted ways with its driver, who two rounds before had been involved in a major crash with team-mate Seb Murray that ruled him out of a full race weekend.

Murray was back on track at Leguna Seca and put in a strong performance in FP1. In the opening minutes he was near the top, but dropped down the order as the pace was improved by Hauger.

He was first into the 1m15s, and by the time the field returned to the pits ahead of their final runs he had set a 1m14.8779s to sit comfortably ahead of HMD Motorsports’ Max Taylor in second.

That position was traded multiple times through the final minutes of the session, and HMD’s Josh Pierson jumped up the order late on to third. Following that he found even more pace, getting within 0.1617 seconds of Hauger as he also broke the 1m15s barrier.

HMD’s Caio Collet was third quickest ahead of Abel Motorsports with Force Indy’s Myles Rowe, Taylor and Abel’s Callum Hedge.

Murray ended practice seventh quickest. He improved on his final lap, but spun at the first corner after taking the chequered flag. He was not the only driver to run into minor problems. Jack William Miller came to a stop on track at turn three, but managed to get going again without race control bringing out red flags. Early in FP1, Andretti Global’s Lochie Hughes had a wide moment at turn eight. He avoided the barriers and continued unscathed.

Hughes ended qualifying eighth ahead of team-mate James Roe Jr, who set his best lap early on. After running at the top of the order early in the session, Andretti’s de Alba ended FP1 in 10th place.

Free practice results