Palou pounded 70 laps around the circuit’s shorter 1.67-mile layout in the No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, setting the fastest overall pace in the afternoon session at a 52.0883s (115.419 mph).
“Nowadays, we don’t get as many tests as we would like,” Palou said.
“We would always want to have a lot of test days, but honestly, it’s super important when we are only one week and a half out of St. Pete.
“We want to go through a lot of the engineering list that we’ve been thinking about all offseason. We won’t have enough time. But it’s a way to get the rest of the drivers, just all the crew, all the team together and try and get some ideas in person.”
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard ended the day second at 0.019s behind, directly ahead of Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden, who was 0.041s off the top mark.
Colton Herta (Andretti Global) and Alexander Rossi (Arrow McLaren), who logged the most laps total between the morning and afternoon sessions with 89, rounded out the rest of the remainder of the top five.
“It was a good day,” Rossi said. “It’s funny; we’ve been fortunate enough to do a lot of hybrid testing, but this is really only the second day with this package, so it was good to get an understanding of where it’s going to be for St. Pete.
“We accomplished everything that we wanted to today, and we feel confident with where we are. I’m excited to get to St. Pete and get to work.”
Pato O’Ward put his No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet in sixth, with six-time IndyCar Series champion Scott Dixon in seventh for Chip Ganassi Racing.
Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood led the morning session but was relegated to eighth overall with the outright pace of the afternoon, a session that saw each of the 15 participants set their respective fastest times of the day. Scott McLaughlin’s No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet slotted ninth on the charts, ahead of Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay in 10th (0.467s off Palou’s time).
Pietro Fittipaldi (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing) finished the day 11th, with Meyer Shank Racing’s Tom Blomqvist scoring 12th and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Agustin Canapino in 13th.
Sting Ray Robb, who joined AJ Foyt Racing over the offseason after spending his rookie campaign in 2023 with Dale Coyne Racing, finished up 14th. Jack Harvey was held out of the morning’s running by Dale Coyne Racing, but still managed to put down 63 laps in the afternoon with a best of 53.0766s.
Tuesday will largely feature a different group of drivers running, with the exception being O’Ward, who is subbing for the injured David Malukas.
