Rookie Phil Giebler completed the final two phases of the mandatory Rookie Orientation Programme as IndyCar Series teams geared up for the first official practice day for the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500.
Giebler, driving team-mate Jaques Lazier's #21 Playa Del Racing Panoz-Honda, quickly completed the final high-speed phases shortly after the track opened for the day.
"I went through my ROP segments quite quickly - and easily," said Giebler, who is attempting to become the tenth driver to graduate from the Indy Pro Series to the Indianapolis 500, "It's just part of the process that we had to do. It was a little frustrating. As a racing driver, you always want to go quicker."
Giebler, who recorded 52 laps on the day, lapped the 2.5-mile oval in 41.4572secs, and was satisfied with the work done by the Playa Del Racing team.
"We were just trying out some different things for the engineers, went through our programmes and everything went pretty smoothly," Giebler said, "Overall, it was a really good day to get up to full speed. It's an amazing feeling being here.
"The car is definitely the best that I've driven in professional racing. It's definitely the quickest thing that I've driven, and it's very responsive to change. Also, the feeling in the steering wheel is quite responsive. All in all, it's a more complete race car. I'd like to get it on a road course."
Fellow rookie Milka Duno, who completed her ROP test on Sunday [6 May], and veterans Lazier, Michael Andretti, Ryan Briscoe, Jon Herb and Davey Hamilton all turned laps on the second day of track activity at the Brickyard. Andretti led the timesheets with a lap in 40.6176secs, the fastest of the month to date.
