Alex Palou continued to turn the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course into his personal playground, leading the opening practice for the Sonsio Grand Prix on Friday morning.\

Four-time and reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Palou was quickest at 1 minute, 10.0904 seconds in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda on the 14-turn, 2.439-mile road course. Palou has won this race to open the Month of May at IMS each of the last three years.

SEE: Practice Results

“It was a good start,” Palou said. “The No. 10 car was really, really fast. Same as last year here. We’re just trying a couple of things, seeing if we can get it more toward these track conditions.”

Cool temperatures posed setup challenges for teams. The air temperature was 57 degrees, with a track temperature of only 62 degrees under sunny skies at the start of the 64-minute session divided into three groups.

Up next on a busy day for the drivers and teams is a second practice at 1 p.m. ET (FS1, FOX One, INDYCAR Radio by Only Bulls), followed by NTT P1 Award qualifying at 5:30 p.m. ET (FS2, FOX One, INDYCAR Radio by OnlyBulls). The 85-lap race starts at 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday (FOX, FOX One, INDYCAR Radio by OnlyBulls).

Graham Rahal continued to show strength on the IMS road course by ending up second at 1:10.1979 in the No. 15 Fifth Third Bank Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Rahal has finished in the top 10 in 15 of his 17 starts on this circuit, including second place three times.

Kyle Kirkwood kept in touch with series leader Palou by ending up third at 1:10.2146 in the No. 27 JM Bullion/Gold.com Honda of Andretti Global. Kirkwood trails Palou by 17 points in the series standings, the only driver within one race worth of points of the Spaniard.

Felix Rosenqvist ended up fourth at 1:10.2161 in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb Agajanian. David Malukas rounded out the top five as the quickest Chevy-powered driver at 1:10.3773 in the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet featuring a throwback silver livery this weekend.

Chip Ganassi Racing has won the last four races on the IMS road course, and the team looks poised to continue that streak. Kyffin Simpson was sixth at 1:10.4194 in the No. 8 Sunoco Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, while six-time series champion Scott Dixon was eighth at 1:10.4734 in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Less than one-half of a second separated Palou from Louis Foster, 12th at 1:10.5454 in the No. 45 Desnuda Organic Tequila Honda of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing.