IndyCar St. Pete: Herta leads Dixon in raceday warm-up
With his last lap of the session, Colton Herta edged championship aspirant Scott Dixon to lead IndyCar’s half-hour warm-up session ahead of this afternoon’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.
Herta, who will start third in his Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport-Honda, set a time of 61.6011sec on his 22nd and final tour of the 1.8-mile street/runway course to edge Dixon by 0.0243sec.
The Chip Ganassi Racing-Honda ace, survived a trip into the Turn 1 run-off zone, just after hitting top spot, and squeezed in 27 laps in the 30min session. He will roll off 11th as he guns for his sixth IndyCar championship.
Ganassi’s form looked strong, with Felix Rosenqvist and Marcus Ericsson claiming third and 10th in the other CGR-Hondas, while Alexander Rossi – starting from the front row this afternoon – nabbed fourth spot.
Fastest Chevrolet runner was two-time St. Petersburg winner Sebastien Bourdais of AJ Foyt Racing.
James Hinchcliffe and Ryan Hunter-Reay ensured three Andretti cars in the top 10, despite Hinchcliffe also making a trip into a runoff area, fortunately without damaging his car.
The only person who could beat Dixon to the title, Josef Newgarden, was ninth fastest, less than a tenth of a second ahead of Team Penske-Chevrolet teammate Scott McLaughlin – making his IndyCar race debut today – and a couple of tenths up on yesterday’s pole-winner Will Power.
The race begins at 2.30pm local (Eastern) time on NBC in the U.S..
| Cla | Driver | Team | Laps | Time | Gap | Mph |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Colton Herta | Andretti Harding Steinbrenner Autosport | 22 | 1'01.601 | 105.193 | |
| 2 |  Scott Dixon | Chip Ganassi Racing | 27 | 1'01.625 | 0.024 | 105.151 |
| 3 |  Felix Rosenqvist | Chip Ganassi Racing | 19 | 1'01.836 | 0.234 | 104.793 |
| 4 | Alexander Rossi | Andretti Autosport | 16 | 1'01.871 | 0.270 | 104.734 |
| 5 |  Sébastien Bourdais | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 21 | 1'01.982 | 0.380 | 104.546 |
| 6 |  James Hinchcliffe | Andretti Autosport | 26 | 1'01.991 | 0.390 | 104.531 |
| 7 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | Andretti Autosport | 19 | 1'02.131 | 0.530 | 104.295 |
| 8 |  Takuma Sato | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 26 | 1'02.213 | 0.612 | 104.157 |
| 9 | Josef Newgarden | Team Penske | 25 | 1'02.246 | 0.645 | 104.102 |
| 10 | Marcus Ericsson | Chip Ganassi Racing | 23 | 1'02.265 | 0.664 | 104.070 |
| 11 |  Alex Palou | Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh | 21 | 1'02.276 | 0.675 | 104.052 |
| 12 |  Jack Harvey | Meyer Shank Racing | 21 | 1'02.292 | 0.691 | 104.025 |
| 13 |  Patricio O'Ward | Arrow McLaren SP | 22 | 1'02.322 | 0.721 | 103.975 |
| 14 | Graham Rahal | Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing | 19 | 1'02.326 | 0.725 | 103.968 |
| 15 | Scott McLaughlin | Team Penske | 27 | 1'02.338 | 0.737 | 103.949 |
| 16 |  Will Power | Team Penske | 26 | 1'02.450 | 0.848 | 103.763 |
| 17 | Max Chilton | Carlin | 21 | 1'02.659 | 1.058 | 103.416 |
| 18 | Simon Pagenaud | Team Penske | 27 | 1'02.684 | 1.082 | 103.376 |
| 19 | Marco Andretti | Andretti Herta Autosport with Marco & Curb-Agajani | 19 | 1'02.695 | 1.094 | 103.356 |
| 20 | Conor Daly | Ed Carpenter Racing | 24 | 1'02.746 | 1.145 | 103.273 |
| 21 | Santino Ferrucci | Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser Sullivan | 23 | 1'02.779 | 1.178 | 103.218 |
| 22 | Oliver Askew | Arrow McLaren SP | 25 | 1'02.791 | 1.189 | 103.200 |
| 23 |  Rinus van Kalmthout | Ed Carpenter Racing | 26 | 1'02.811 | 1.210 | 103.166 |
| 24 | Charlie Kimball | A.J. Foyt Enterprises | 18 | 1'03.360 | 1.759 | 102.271 |
| View full results | ||||||
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About this article
| Series | IndyCar |
| Event | St. Pete |
| Author | David Malsher-Lopez |
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