Christian Lundgaard continued his rapid adjustment to his new home at Arrow McLaren, leading pre-qualifying practice Saturday for The Thermal Club INDYCAR Grand Prix.

Lundgaard’s best lap of 1 minute, 40.6421 seconds in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet came on Firestone Firehawk alternate compound tires. Lundgaard led despite missing the last 10 minutes of the 40-minute session as a penalty for Lundgaard being late to the driver weigh-in Friday required at all NTT INDYCAR SERIES races.

SEE: Practice Results

“We didn’t get to run our alts (alternate tires) yesterday as a proper run,” Lundgaard said. “We had an issue on the car. So, going into today, we felt pretty confident from where we were on the primes (Firestone Firehawk primary tires) yesterday. I think today we kind of proved that. We maximized what we had today, and going into qualifying, this is a confidence boost for all of us. We’ll be there.”

Up next is NTT P1 Award qualifying at 5 p.m. ET today (FS1, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network). The 65-lap race starts at 3 p.m. ET Sunday (FOX, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).

Lundgaard moved to Arrow McLaren this season after three full seasons with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He started his tenure with the team by qualifying fifth and finishing eighth earlier this month at the season-opening Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding, finishing ahead of teammates Pato O’Ward and Nolan Siegel in qualifying and the race.

Three-time and two-time defending series champion Alex Palou was second in practice with a top lap of 1:41.1247 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. He led Friday practice at 1:40.5486, still the quickest lap of the weekend.

Marcus Ericsson continued his strong start to the weekend by ending up third at 1:41.2831 in the No. 28 Bryant Honda fielded by Andretti Global. Ericsson also was third quickest Friday in practice.

Marcus Armstrong leaped from 16th Friday to fourth today with his top lap of 1:41.3574 in the No. 66 SiriusXM/Root Insurance Honda of Meyer Shank Racing. O’Ward rounded out the top five at 1:41.4334 in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, as Arrow McLaren was the only team to place two drivers in the top five.

Devising the proper tire strategy will be pivotal to competing for the pole in NTT P1 Award qualifying this afternoon on the 17-turn, 3.067-mile circuit at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains, said Team Penske’s Will Power, the all-time leader in poles in INDYCAR SERIES history.

“It’s a very, very difficult track,” Power said. “Very difficult to get it right. You feel like you’ve just got one lap on your red (alternate) tires, so you’ve got to put it together. And you get to the (Firestone) Fast Six, and you’re doing it on used (alternate tires), or if you wanted to take a risk, I guess you could do new blacks (primary tires).”