Blomqvist Tops Turbulent IMSA Practice at Indy as Red Flags Trigger Qualifying Penalties

IMSA penalties for red-flag incidents will reshape qualifying plans across multiple classes.

Overview

Tom Blomqvist led Opening Practice with a 1:16.209 in the No. 60 Acura ARX-06, heading a Meyer Shank Racing 1-2 over teammate Nick Yelloly.
IMSA confirmed the No. 11 TDS LMP2 of Mikkel Jensen and the No. 24 BMW of Philipp Eng will forfeit their fastest qualifying laps for causing red flags.
Three stoppages punctuated the session: Nicky Catsburg’s Corvette oil leak halted running first, contact involving Jensen and Lilou Wadoux triggered debris for the second, and Eng’s Turn 4 spin caused the third.
Jensen still paced LMP2, while GTD was led by Valentin Hasse-Clot’s 1:24.403 in the No. 19 Aston Martin, narrowly quicker than Davide Rigon’s GTD Pro DragonSpeed Ferrari by 0.016s.
Further penalties included Naveen Rao for incident responsibility and pit-lane speeding and Tom Dillmann for blocking, with Practice 2 set for Saturday at 8:55 a.m. ET.